ITY  OF    (  Al  If-OPNIA    SAN  DIEGO 

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BEHIND  THE  GERMAN  VEIL 


The  Author 


BEHIND 
THE  GERMAN  VEIL 

A  RECORD  OF 
A  JOURNALISTIC  WAR  PILGRIMAGE 


BY 

J.  M.  DE  BEAUFORT 

(Count  van  MAURIK  de  BEAUFORT) 

Recently  War  Correspondent  of  the 
London  Daily  Telegraph 


WITH  ILLUSTRATIONS  AND  MAPS 


NEW  YORK 
DODD,  MEAD  AND  COMPANY 

1918 


Copyright  191 7 
By  DODD.  mead  AND  COMPANY.  Inc. 

First   edition    printed    May    4     ;9i7 
Second  edition  printed   Tune   16     1917 
Third  edition  printed  August   15    1917 
Fourth  edition  printed   September  23     1917 
Fifth  edition   printed   November  7     1917 
Sixth  edition  printed  January  30,   1918 
Seventh    edition    printed    February    22,    1918 
Eighth  edition  printed  May  31,  1918 


TO 
"LENNY" 

(Helen  F.  R.) 
the  girl  of  my  dreams  come  true 

TO 

M.  L.  T. 
best  of  friends 

AND  TO 

GEORGE  H.  T., 

JUSTIN   McGr., 

ROBERT  C.  McC, 

ARTHUR  C, 

AND 
ARTHUR  D. 

American  friends  tried  and  true,  who 

have  helped  me  through  many  dark 

hours  and  who  taught  me  how 

to  become  a  good  American 

I  DEDICATE  THIS  BOOK 


AUTHOR'S  ACKNOWLEDGMENT 

I  am  greatly  indebted  to  Dr.  G.  W.  Prothero,  Editor  of 
the  Quarterly  Review,  for  his  kind  permission  to  republish 
the  articles  on  the  German  Navy,  Helgoland,  Kiel,  the  Ger- 
man Coast  Defences  and  the  Maps,  which  appeared  in  the 
July  and  October,  1916,  numbers  of  his  publication. 

My  acknowledgment  and  thanks  are  also  due  to  the  Lon- 
don Daily  Telegraph  in  which  parts  of  Chapters  VII.,  X., 
XLI.,  XLV.,  XLVII.  and  LIII.  have  been  published,  and 
to  the  London  Sunday  Pictorial  for  permission  to  reprint 
Chapters  XXII.  and  XXVI.  (Hindenburg  and  the  Kaiser). 

J.  M.  DE  B. 


CONTENTS 


IlfTEODUOnON 


xiii 


PART  I 
GENERAL  IMPRESSIONS 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

I.     The  Veil  akd  the  Methods 3 

II.     My  "  Point  d'Appui  " —  Rome 14 

III.  "The  Adder" 19 

IV.  German  Mind  and  Character 22 

V.     German  Psychology 27 

VI.     The  Press  in  Germany 31 

VII.     Berlin   Impressions 4o 

VIII.     Berlin   Impressions    {continued) 51 

IX.     Munich 65 

X.     Zeppelins '''2 

XI.     Spies  and  Spying  —  I 82 

XII.     Spies  and  Spying  —  II 88 

XIII.     Spies  AND  Spying  — III 96 

XIA"'.     A  German  Fable 100 

XV.     German   Women 105 

XVI.     Hunting  with  the  Camera 115 

XVII.    "Spiritual  Humour"   (German  Variety)    .     .  120 

PART  II 

MY   TRIP   TO   THE  EASTERN  FRONT  AND    VISIT 
TO  HINDENBURG 

XVIII.     Preliminaries 129 

XIX.     Berlin  —  Allenstein.     Meeting     with     Young 
von     Bethmann-Hollweg  —  Arrest     in     the 

Fortress  of  Posen  ...  in  Pyjamas       .      .      .  134 

XX.     Allenstein 146 

XXI.     Allenstein  —  Feste  Bqyen    (Lotzen)      .     .     .  156 


CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

XXII.      HiNDENBtTRO 163 

XXIII.  LOTZEN 177 

XXIV.  En   Roitte 183 

XXV.     Impressions  in  the  Polish  Fighting  Zones  .      .   193 

XXVI.     When  I  Prayed  with  the  Kaiser 208 

XXVII.       HiNDENBUHG LUDENDOHFF  AND    FaLKENHAYN      .    217 

XXVIII.     Railroads 222 

XXIX.     Retrospect 225 

PART  III 

AN  INCOGNITO  VISIT  TO  THE  FLEET  AND  GER- 
MANY'S NAVAL  HARBOURS 

XXX.  The  German  Admiralty 235 

XXXI.  Germany's  Coast  Defences 239 

XXXII.  Heligoland 249 

XXXIII.  Protection  of  the  Kiel  Canal 255 

XXXIV.  From  Emden  to  Wilhelmshaven 259 

XXXV.  Wilhelmshaven 269 

XXXVI.  Wilhelmshaven  to  Cuxhaven 273 

XXXVII.  Cuxhaven  to  Kiel.    The  Canal    .     .     .     .     .280 

XXXVIII.  Kiel  Harbour 290 

XXXIX.  Training  and  Strategy 298 


PART  IV 

INTERVIEWS 

Introductions 30< 

XL.    Arthur  von  Gwinner 309 

XLI.     Dr.  Walther  Rathenau 320 

XLII.     Ambassador  Count  von  Bernstouff  ....       328 
XLIII.    Matthias   Erzberger  —  Press   Manipulator   and 

Advertising  Expert 332 

XLIV.     Secretary  of  the  Late  German  Colonies,  "  Ex- 
cellenz    Dr.    Solf,"    and    His    A,D.C.,    Dr. 

BiJCHER 339 

XLV^     Sassenbach  —  Social   Democrat 346 

XLVI.    Minister  of  the  Interior  —  Helffebich  .     .     .  352 


CHAPTER 

XLVII. 
XLVIII. 


XLIX. 

L. 

LI. 


LII. 
LIII. 

LIV. 


CONTENTS 

PAOk 

Admiral  von  Capelle  and  "  Captain  Lieuten- 
ant "   LOHLEIN 353 

Phess-Major  Hehwarth  von  Bitterfeld  of  the 
Great  General  Staff  Settles  the  Problem 
OF  Universal  Peace 356 

Herr  Crass,  Krupp's  Representative  in  Berlin   .  360 
Herr  Ballin's  A.D.C,  Herr  von  Holtzendorff  .  365 
The   German-Turkish    Alliance   and   Its   Am- 
bitions    368 

On  "  Strafing  "  and  Those  Who  Don't  .     .     .  387 
The  Fateful  Interview  with  Baron  Macchio, 

Late  Austro-Hungarian  Asibassador  in  Rome  392 
Another  "  Daily   Telegraph  "   Interview  that 
Upset  Berlin.    Trouble  —  Arrest  —  Escape  .  396 


PART  V 
FINALE 


Envoy 


401 


ILLUSTRATIONS 

The  Author Frontispiece 

FACING  PAGE 

The  Magic  Key.  My  letter  of  Introduction  to  Hindenburg 
written  by  his  nephew.  The  address  reads:  To  the  Royal 
Field-Marshal,  Knight  of  the  Highest  Order,  Herr  von 
Beneckendorff  und  von  Hindenburg 16 

Conscription  in  England.  John  Bull  learning  the  goose  step  .    28 

No  Admission  to  Potsdam 66 

Zeppelin  over  London.  The  End  of  England's  Sea-Power. 
Lord  Nelson  descending  from  his  Column  to  hide  in  the 
Underground    Railway 74 

Englishman  in  Hell.     "No  Zeppelins,  no  Krupp  Howitzers; 

no  Submarines!    Why,  I  must  be  in  Heaven!"     .     .     .  122 

Lieutenant  von  Bethmann-HoUweg,  who  has  since  been  killed, 
on  the  right,  and  the  Author.  Photograph  was  taken  at 
Allenstein    Station 150 

The  Author's  car  at  Fortress  Boyen    (Lotzen),  Hindenburg's 

headquarters.    Note  the  Chauffeur's  rifle  near  lamp  .      .  188 

A  snapshot  of  the  Kaiser  taken  by  Prince  Oscar.  It  was  sent 
to  a  photographer  in  a  small  town  to  have  film  developed. 
The  man  printed  a  few  copies  for  his  own  use,  and  sent 
one  to  an  agency  in  Berlin.  The  Berlin  firm  sold  the 
photograph,  but  the  moment  it  appeared  the  greater  part 
of  the  magazine  in  which  it  was  published  was  confiscated  212 

Hindenburg  and  his  Staff.    Ludendorff  appropriately  placed 

on   Hindenburg's   right 216 

Auto  Train,  Eastern  Front 222 

Commander's  bridge  (starboard  side)  of  the  Helgoland  .     .  282 

Recently  completed  railroad  bridge  over  the  Kiel  Canal  near 
'Rendsburg        288 

One  of  the  largest  Zeppelins  leaving  its  shed  at  Marienthal, 

near  Berlin.    Note  size  of  men  on  top 312 

A  model  Krupp  gun,  small  type  of  the  42  cm.  howitzer.    This 

model  is  in  the  author's  possession 312 


ILLUSTRATIONS 

FACING  PAGE 

The  Famous  Krupp  Armament  Works  at  Essen.     6000  ton 

Press 362 

German  Prisoners  in  England.   How  the  press  keeps  the  fires 

of  "strafing"  England  burning 388 

MAPS 
Germany's  Coast  Defences  along  the  North  Sea     ....  238 

Heligoland 248 

Wilhelmshaven 268 

Kiel  Harbour 294 


INTRODUCTION 

In  the  following  chapters  I  have  tried  to  record  my 
impressions,  observations,  interviews  and  adventures  on 
a  somewhat  extensive  journalistic  pilgrimage  through 
Germany  in  war-time. 

Before  embarking  on  my  descriptions,  I  am  going  to 
permit  myself  what  Parliamentarians  call  a  "  personal 
note,"  which  will  show  you  that  my  acquaintance  with 
Germany  and  the  Germans  is  not  of  the  "  war-made  " 
variety. 

Since  I  am  convinced  that  but  for  my  American 
journalistic  training,  I  would  never  have  been  able  to 
accomplish  many  of  my  journalistic  enterprises,  I  take 
this  occasion  to  acknowledge  with  a  deep  sense  of  ap- 
preciation and  gratitude,  my  three  years'  apprentice- 
ship in  America.  They  taught  me  many  things ;  they 
revealed  to  me  an  entirely  new  aspect  of  life.  I  learned 
the  real  meaning  of  the  terms  "  Hustle,"  "  Get  busy  " 
and  "  Stick  to  it."  I  learned  there  that  there  are 
many  other  battlefields  where  spurs  and  honours  may 
be  won  than  those  of  war  and  murder.  I  look  back 
with  interest  and  pleasure  to  many  friendly  (and  some- 
times unfriendly  but  always  spirited)  contests  with  col- 
leagues, in  trying  to  obtain  the  best  "  story  "  for  one's 
own  paper  or  even  to  score  a  "  beat." 

The  outbreak  of  the  war  found  me  in  America. 
Much  as  I  disliked  and  against  the  advice  of  many 
friends,  I  gave  up  my  work  there.  Europe  called. 
Blood  will  tell.     I  soon  found  myself  getting  restless. 


xiv  INTRODUCTION 

My  sympathies  with  the  Allies,  more  spe'cifically  the 
British  cause,  urged  that  I  had  no  right  to  lag  behind 
in  making  sacrifices. 

So  in  September,  1914,  I  bid  "  Au  revoir  "  to  Amer- 
ica and  since  then  and  thanks  to  that  belated  American 
Education,  I  have  been  able  to  do  "  my  bit,"  as  we  say 
over  there,  in  various  capacities. 

While  my  British  confreres  were  still  camping  on 
the  doormat  of  the  War  Office,  waiting  for  those  elu- 
sive permits  (for  many  of  them  it  was  a  case  of  "  Wait 
and  See,"  without  the  "  see  "),  I  was  fortunate  enough 
to  reach  the  front  at  Ostende,  Nieuport,  Dixmude, 
Ypres  and  soon  found  myself  in  the  thick  of  it.  Oh, 
yes,  I  was  arrested  more  than  once,  but  I  had  not 
served  my  apprenticeship  in  American  newspaperdom, 
without  benefit.  I  could  talk  a  "  straight  streak  "  in 
just  the  language  the  other  fellow  did  not  know  —  when 
necessary,  and  though  I  often  skated  on  mighty  tliin 
ice  I  usually  managed  to  keep  out  of  jail. 

I  have  had  the  rare  privilege  of  reading  my  own  obit- 
uary and  even  afforded  a  colleague  the  somewhat 
unique  experience  of  shaking  hands  with  a  man  whose 
"  In  Memoriam  "  he  had  written  in  one  solid  column. 
As  your  Mark  Twain  put  it,  "  the  report  was  some- 
what exaggerated."  (Not  the  first  time  either!) 
Though  I  had  a  close  call,  I  escaped,  and  —  as  you 
shall  see  —  I  am  still  "  in  the  ring." 

By  birth  and  parentage  I  am  a  Hollander,  but  the 
"  de  Beaufort  "  part  of  my  name  comes  from  a  grand- 
uncle  who  was  a  native  of  the  Grand  Duchy  of  Luxem- 
bourg. Since  1914  my  better  half,  or  I  should  say  my 
best  half,  has  been  American.  Let  me  hasten  to  ex- 
plain this.  Before  starting  for  the  theatre  of  war  I 
applied,  at  the  advice  of  a  friend,  for  my  first  American 
citizenship  papers.     I  hope  to  obtain  my  final  papers 


INTRODUCTION  xv 

shortly,  after  which  I  shall  place  my  services  at  the 
disposal  of  the  American  Government. 

My  father  belonged  to  that  type  of  stubborn  parent 
who  thinks  he  knows  what  is  best  for  a  boy  of  fifteen. 
He  had  very  pronounced  views,  like  some  other  people, 
on  the  German  educational  system  (so  have  I,  for  that 
matter,  but  they  are  somewhat  different).  He  thought 
that  I  should  benefit  by  a  few  years  of  German  school 
and  college.  And,  in  spite  of  stormy  and  liquid  pro- 
tests, to  Germany  I  went. 

From  an  English  tutor  to  a  German  schoolmaster! 
It  did  not  take  me  many  days  after  my  arrival  in  Ger- 
many to  find  out  the  abysmal  difference  that  separates 
the  two,  and  to  suffer  accordingl3% 

Talk  about  the  two  educational  systems  —  Ye  gods ! 
If  there  is  any  one  who  ought  to  be  able  to  discourse  on 
them,  I  think  I  am  the  man. 

Being  at  the  time  —  not  now  —  an  embryo  large 
landowner,  I  was  first  sent  to  the  Agricultural  College 
at  Cleve  in  the  Rhine  province.  My  "  tenderest " 
recollections  of  that  institution  are  connected  with  the 
gymnasium  and  a  three-foot  bamboo  rod. 

Already  then  I  showed  literary  tendencies,  but,  alas ! 
they  were  neither  appreciated  nor  encouraged.  My 
first  effort  was  to  try  and  censor  one  of  their  patriotic 
poems.  Imagine  a  self-respecting  Hollander  having  to 
stand  up  in  front  of  the  class  and  recite  five  verses,  each 
ending  with :  "  I  am  a  Prussian,  and  a  Prussian  I  will 
be." 

Once  a  term  or  so  they  hold  in  Germany  what  is  called 
"  Offentliche  Priifung  " ;  in  other  words,  a  "  public  ex- 
amination." The  parents  are  invited,  and  those  whose 
offspring  are  "  show  specimens "  bring  their  friends 
(mine  did  not).  The  boys  wear  their  best  clothes, 
and,  of  course,  only  the  smartest  amongst  them  perform. 


xvi  INTRODUCTION 

I  suppose  just  to  show  that  there  was  no  ill-feeling 
on  his  part,  the  Headmaster,  Herr  Fiirstenbcrg  —  I 
can  still  see  him  with  his  mean  grey  eyes,  looking  at 
me  over  the  rim  of  his  glasses  and  getting  a  firm  hold 
on  the  rod  —  appointed  me  to  recite  the  obnoxious 
poem.  Amid  dead  silence  I  started.  When  I  came 
to  the  end  of  the  verse  in  which  I  had  eulogised  the 
"  old  father  Rhine,"  I  yelled : 

"  And  I  am  a  Dutchman,  and  a  Dutchman  I  will  be." 

It  is  a  few  years  ago,  but  I  can  still  see  the  startled 
audience  and  the  awful  pallor  of  old  Fiirstenbcrg.  An 
anarchist's  bomb  could  not  have  had  a  greater  effect. 
Then  some  of  the  people  tried  to  smile  it  away,  but  the 
smile  was  somewhat  sickly.  I  was  promptly  torn  from 
the  stand ;  somebody  tried  to  turn  my  ear  upside-down, 
to  which  I  retaliated  with  a  well-directed  kick,  and  then, 
—  well,  never  mind.  There  was  a  vacancy  at  the 
Agricultural  College. 

Cleve  was  very  uncosmopolitan.  My  fellow-students 
consisted  mostly  of  the  sons  of  large  landowners  and 
gentlemen  farmers,  and  they  resented,  not  always 
merely  passively,  the  intrusion  of  a  "  Verdammte 
Ausliindcr  "  ("  damned  foreigner  ")  in  their  Germanic 
midst.  But  there  was,  as  there  is  in  most  things  in 
life,  a  price.  If  you  were  willing  to  demonstrate  practi- 
cal socialism — i.e.,  share  3^our  money,  your  sweets,  your 
pony,  your  bicycle,  or  whatever  it  might  be  —  you  were, 
for  such  time  as  your  possessions  lasted,  a  "  Lieber 
Kerl "  ("dear  chap").  Unfortunately  I  soon  dis- 
covered that  the  particular  socialistic  principle  pro- 
pounded by  my  fellow-students  — ^  i.e.,  of  sharing  all 
you  had  —  was  a  somewhat  one-sided  law,  as  /  did  all 
the  sharing,  and  they  all  the  partaking,  without  prac- 
tising the  same  doctrines  as  far  as  their  own  possessions 


INTRODUCTION  xvii 

were  concerned.  So  I  resigned.  This  did  not  increase 
my  popularity.  I  had  as  many  fights  as  any  self-re- 
specting boy  of  fifteen  could  have  in  the  Fatherland, 
and  that,  let  me  assure  you,  was  sujQBcient  to  keep  me  in 
practice. 

But  there  is  one  incident  which  will  best  illustrate  the 
"  camaraderie  "  that  exists  amongst  German  "  sport- 
ing "  schoolboys.  There  is  a  saying,  that  the  boy  is 
father  to  the  man.  I  understand  its  meaning  now. 
Boxing  is  a  lost  art  in  Germany ;  it  was  in  my  days  and 
is  so  still.  Wrestling  is  their  forte.  Quite  natural, 
too.  The  German  is  heavy  in  mind  as  well  as  in  body. 
Wrestling  does  not  require  as  quick  an  eye  as  boxing. 
Thanks  to  the  very  good  lessons  of  my  old  English 
tutor,  God  bless  him,  who,  between  trying  to  teach  me 
to  pronounce  "  th  "  and  the  English  "  r,"  had  initiated 
me  into  the  secrets  of  boxing,  I  emerged  victorious 
from  many  scraps. 

It  was  the  day  after  one  of  those  periodical  fights  in 
which  two  boys  of  the  "  secunda  "  (I  was  only  "  ter- 
tia"),  had  received  many  marks  but  few  honours,  that 
I  met  my  two  opponents  in  the  Park  accompanied  by 
four  of  their  friends.  Of  course  I  was  waylaid,  and  the 
usual  schoolboy  argument,  "  I  can  lick  you,"  "  No,  you 
can't,"  ensued.  I  owned  in  those  days  an  English 
bulldog.  He  looked  very  fierce,  always  wore  the  "  By- 
Jingo-if-I-do  "  sort  of  expression,  and  was  never  im- 
pressed by  German  flattery  either  from  man  or  beast. 
(Old  Bob  knew  a  lot,  if  only  he  could  have  talked !  But 
perhaps  it  was  just  as  well  he  couldn't.  He  probably 
would  say  now :  "  I  told  you  so."  But  "  revenons  a 
nos  moutons.") 

"  Boxing,"  so  I  was  informed,  was  not  a  gentlemanly 
way   of  fighting.     Only  English  navvies  fought  with 


xviii  INTRODUCTION 

their  fists.  But  wrestling,  and  wrestling  according  to 
the  approved  Konian  or  Grecian  rules,  now  that  was  a 
different  matter ;  that  was  "  fair  and  square  " ! 

I  told  them  that  I  was  innocent  of  any  knowledge 
of  the  Roman-Greco  wrestling  rules,  but  I  offered  to 
thrash  my  two  opponents  of  yesterday  once  again 
where  they  stood,  and  I  hoped  that  the  proportion  of 
two  to  one  in  their  favour  would  make  up  for  my  ig- 
norance and  perhaps  consequent  transgression  of  those 
rules. 

Here  is  where  German  diplomacy  got  the  best  of  me. 

"  Assisted  by  dog  and  stick  ?  "  they  sneeringly  in- 
quired. I  was  very  young  and  inexperienced  in  Ger- 
man methods  in  those  days,  so  I  was  deeply  insulted 
and  most  indignant  at  their  daring  to  suggest  such  a 
cowardly  thing.  "  I  don't  need  anything  else  but  my 
two  fists,"  I  yelled,  "  to  lick  two  German  pigs  like  you." 
And  to  prove  my  assertion,  I  turned  aside  to  where  a 
little  kind-faced,  gre^'-bcardcd  old  German  stood,  and, 
with  a  polite  bow,  I  begged  him  to  be  kind  enough  to 
hold  my  dog  and  stick  for  a  few  moments.  He  very 
kindly  condescended  to  accept  the  charge,  but  thought 
it  safer  to  take  old  Bob  away  from  the  scene  of  the 
forthcoming  battle.     He  was  a  wise  old  German, 

"  Divide  and  win  "  was  already  in  those  days  the 
motto  of  these  young  warriors.  "  Fair  and  square?  " 
Why,  even  then  they  were  mere  words,  mere  "  scraps  of 
paper." 

I  will  not  go  into  painful  details  of  that  engagement ; 
suffice  it  to  say  that  I  received  the  worst  beating  I  ever 
had,  or  ever  heard  tell  of.  The  moment  my  faithful 
friend  and  ally  had  disappeared  from  view,  all  SIX  of 
them  attacked  me.  Not  only  the  "  scenery  of  my 
face  " —  as,  in  my  early  English-speaking  days  I  used 
to  say  instead  of  "  expression," —  but  the  contour  as 


INTRODUCTION  xix 

well  suffered  a  thorough  change.  It  was  many  weeks 
before  it  returned  to  its  normal  proportions  and  col- 
ours. There  was  no  doubt  about  it ;  this  time  /  bore 
the  marks,  but  had  tJiey  the  honours?  German-like,  of 
course  they  thought  so,  but  I  differed  from  them,  and 
.  .  ,  remembered. 

From  Cleve  I  went  to  Bonn,  which  was  comparatively 
uneventful,  as,  of  course,  I  gradually  began  to  grasp 
the  German  point  of  view.  My  earlier  impressions  were 
the  most  pregnant  and  vivid. 

Often  during  the  last  two  years  they  have  come  back 
to  me  and  that  is  probably  the  reason  why  I  have  not 
been  able  to  share  the  feelings  of  surprise  my  English 
friends  experience  when  reading  the  reports  of  the 
German  way  of  fighting.  Never,  until  this  war,  did  I 
really  fully  appreciate  the  advantage  those  three  years 
in  Germany  conferred  on  me. 

I  apologise  to  my  father.     He  was  right  —  Germany 
taught  me  many  things ;  but,  best  of  all, 
"  I  learned  about  '  Germans  '  from  her." 

J.  M.   DE  B. 

New  York, 
April,  1917. 


PART    I 

GENERAL  IMPRESSIONS 


Behind  the  German  Veil 

CHAPTER  I 

THE    VEIL    AND    THE    METHODS 

"rriHERE  is  no  German  Veil;  we  have  nothing  to 
JL  hide."  Thus  Major  Deutelmoser,  Chief  of  the 
Press  Department  of  the  General  Staff  in  Berlin,  coun- 
tered when  I  jestingly  remarked  that  I  had  come  to 
Germany,  "  to  have  a  peep  behind  the  veil."  How 
many  a  true  word  is  spoken  in  jest ! 

I  received  practically  the  same  reply  everywhere 
whenever  I  suggested  the  veil  or  "  behind  the  scenes." 

"  We  have  nothing  to  hide,"  thundered  Major  Her- 
warth  von  Bitterfeld,  of  the  Intelligence  Service. 
*'  The  German  Veil  is  only  another  of  the  many  inven- 
tions of  our  enemies,  chiefly  the  English.  You  can  see 
everything  in  Germany ;  go  anywhere,  everything  is 
open  and  above  board," 

"  The  German  Veil  is  a  myth,"  said  Baron  Mumm 
von  Schwarzenstein,  of  the  Foreign  Office ;  "  it  is  as 
great  a  myth  as  the  British  Fleet  in  the  German  Ocean.^ 
It  does  not  exist.     It  is  an  illusion." 

There  you  are,  dear  reader,  three  opinions  thrown  at 
me  —  nay,  I  feel  inclined  to  say,  jammed  down  my 
throat  —  many  times  a  day  during  the  months  I  spent 
in  Germany. 

The  ideas  that  existed  in  England  about  Germany 
during  the  early  months  of  the  war  were  simply  ap^ 

1  German  for  North  Sea. 
3 


4  BEHIND  THE  GERIVIAN  VEIL 

palling.     Many  opinions  expressed  hy  the  majority  of 
people  were  preposterous. 

And  when  I  say  "  people,"  I  do  not  mean  that  vague 
individual,  "  the  man  in  the  street,"  but  your  educated, 
well-read  and  even  well-travelled  classes;  soldiers,  par- 
liamentarians, writers  (famous  strategists!),  etc.,  etc. 
To  read  some  of  your  papers,  to  listen  to  some  of  your 
people,  one  would  have  thought  that  the  Russians  were 
going  to  march  through  the  Brandenburger  Thor  of 
Berlin  by  Christmas,  1914,  and  that  the  Belgians  would 
celebrate  New  Year's  Eve  in  their  beloved  Brussels. 
The  Kaiser  was  to  be  deposed,  and  Prussia  was  going  to 
receive  a  really  liberal  constitution.  Germany  could 
not  stand  the  financial  strain.  The  military  corre- 
spondent of  one  of  your  most  important  papers  wrote 
in  August,  1914 :  "  German  financial  experts  have  sug- 
gested ways  and  means  for  financing  a  war  lasting  six 
months,  but  no  longer,  on  the  present  enormous  scale  " ! 
A  well-known  Member  of  Parliament  told  me  in  Janu- 
ary, 1915,  that  Germany  would  sue  for  peace  in  three 
months ;  a  military  writer  —  a  colonel  —  wrote  that  the 
last  German  offensive  would  take  place  in  September, 
1915,  and  that  in  the  following  October  the  Allied  line 
would  run  from  Ostend,  through  Maubeuge,  Ardennes, 
Luxembourg,  Metz,  Strassburg!  Germany  would  soon 
be  short  of  everything  —  bread,  copper,  cotton,  rubber, 
petrol  —  and,  if  you  read  some  of  the  statistics  given  by 
your  "  experts  "  on  German  man-power,  the  German 
trenches  ought  to  have  been  manned  for  the  last  six 
months  by  idiots  and  cripples. 

Even  to-day,  after  twenty-eight  months  of  war,  there 
are  still  many  people  in  this  country  who  have  not  the 
faintest  understanding  about  the  German  character, 
the   German   aims,   their   cunning   and  their   designs. 


THE  VEIL  AND  THE  METHODS  5 

Here  and  there  I  hear  whispers  about  peace ;  I  am  asked 
whether  the  present  peace-talk  may  lead  to  anything. 

I  hope  to  God  it  will ! 

I  hope  it  will  lead  to  a  doubled  —  nay,  to  a  hundred- 
fold —  renewed  effort  of  smashing  the  Germans'  war- 
machine.  I  should  like  to  see  the  Germans  —  in  the 
famous  words  of  Bismarck  when  he  referred  to  the 
French  — "  left  with  nothing  but  their  ej'es  to  weep 
with."  Alas !  that  will  prove  too  expensive  an  order, 
but  they  must  be  beaten,  and  they  can  be  beaten  only 
by  the  memory  of  those  that  have  sacrificed  their  lives ; 
disabuse  yourself  of  the  illusion  that  it  is  done  already. 

Germany  is  far  from  beaten  yet. 

"  But  they  want  peace,"  I  have  been  told  so  often 
these  last  weeks.  Perhaps  they  do ;  again,  perhaps 
they  don't !  The  Germans  are  no  fools,  whatever  else 
they  may  be,  and  they  are  perfectly  well  aware  that 
the  Allies  would  not,  and  could  not,  accept  any  terms 
which  Germany  at  present,  with  both  eyes  on  the  map, 
would  propose.  I  do  not  believe  that  there  is  any  peace 
door  "  ajar  "  yet.  I  think  that  entrance  or  exit,  what- 
ever you  choose  to  call  it,  is  still  barred  and  locked,  and 
that  the  deceptive  "  latchstring "  hanging  outside  is 
connected  with  a  mine.  The  Germans  are  merely  look- 
ing out  of  the  window  —  the  top-floor  one  —  and  I 
think  that  whosoever  would  venture  close  to  that  "  peace 
door "  would  have  a  somewhat  similar  experience  as 
some  of  our  men  had  early  in  the  war,  when  they  rushed 
towards  "  surrendering "  Germans,  showing  the  white 
flag  and  standing  with  their  hands  up. 

I  fear  that  there  is  a  great  deal  more  than  barbed 
wire  and  machine-guns  behind  that  German  "  peace 
door." 

It  may  not  be  so  evident  to  those  who  only  look  as 
far  as  .  .  .  the  door ;  but  let  me  quote  part  of  a  con- 


6  BEHIND  THE  GERMAN  VEIL 

versation  I  had  with  one  of  Hindenburg's  staff-officers 
at  Allenstein,  East  Prussia,  last  year;  it  may  enlarge 
their  view.     Said  he : 

"  We  never  thought  we  could  do  it.  We  never  ex- 
pected that  we  should  be  called  upon  to  fight  so  many 
enemies  at  the  same  time.  We  were  not  prepared  for 
that.  We  were  short  of  ammunition  in  November, 
1914.  But  if  we  are  able  to  accomplish  all  we  have  up 
till  now,  UN  prepared,  then  '  Himmel '  "  (by  heaven!), 
"  give  us  a  draw  now  and  see  what  we  can  do  ten  years 
hence." 

Yes,  perhaps  Germany  wants  peace  now,  but  only 
because  she  wants  to  have  foundations  left  upon  which 
to  build  a  new  organisation,  a  new  stupendous  war- 
machine,  which  in  ten  years  from  now  would  dwarf 
anything  the  world  has  yet  seen,  heard  or  imagined. 

That  is  what  I  should  answer  to  those  who  are  think- 
ing of  peace  now. 

Since  the  beginning  of  the  war  I  have  had  arguments, 
discussions,  remonstrations,  and  even  to  a  certain  extent 
quarrels,  with  many  friends  and  acquaintances,  some- 
times even  at  the  risk  of  being  suspected  of  pro-German 
sympathies.  Of  course,  before  my  recent  German  visit 
my  arguments  were  weakened  by  the  fact  that  I  had 
not  been  in  Germany  for  six  or  seven  years,  and  there- 
fore could  not  speak  from  fresh  personal  observation. 

•  So,  when  after  several  months  at  the  Belgian  front 
and  in  France,  the  London  Daily  Telegraph,  in  con- 
junction with  several  American  publications,  offered 
me  a  special  journalistic  mission,  viz.,  to  go  to  Ger- 
many, I  accepted  with  alacrity. 

I  thought  that  by  going  to  Germany  as  a  journalist, 
by  looking  round,  and  seeing  what  the  general  feeling 
of  the  people  was;  their  mental  attitude  towards  the 


THE  VEIL  AND  THE  METHODS  7 

war,  the  condition  of  the  country  generally,  etc.,  etc., 
and  by  telling  the  people  of  the  allied  countries  on  my 
return  what  I  had  seen,  I  would  be  doing  my  share. 

It  has  been  suggested  —  I  have  even  seen  it  in  print 
—  that  I  undertook  my  trip  on  behalf  of  the  British 
Intelligence  Service. 

Any  such  assertion  is  absolutely  and  utterly  false. 

I  held  no  brief,  either  for  the  British  or  for  any 
other  Government,  and  I  have  never  received,  nor  asked, 
one  single  penny  from  any  other  sources  but  those  in 
payment  for  journalistic  and  literary  material  which 
has  been  published. 

I  started  on  my  mission  and  entered  Germany  with 
as  far  as  possible  an  open  mind.  I  could  not  honestly 
say  at  that  time  that  I  hated  the  Germans ;  I  merely 
had  no  use  for  them.  Besides,  I  have  always  believed 
that  the  spirit  of  hatred  is  a  great  drawback  to  any 
journalist.  It  tends  to  blind  intelligent  observation; 
it  makes  him  see  matters  distorted.  I  wanted  no 
secrets,  naval,  military  or  otherwise;  I  wanted  news, 
straight,  honest,  reliable  news.  My  likes  or  dislikes 
had  nothing  to  do  with  my  work.  I  entered  upon  my 
mission  in  exactly  the  same  spirit  as  I  would  have  had 
in  Paris,  Rome,  Petrograd,  Constantinople,  etc.  But 
even  a  journalist  of  less  perspicacity  than  one  schooled 
in  America  would  soon  find  out  that  "  straight,  reliable 
news  "  are  somewhat  rare  and  expensive  commodities  in 
Germany  these  days.  You  might  find  "  news,"  but 
without  the  "  reliable  "  or  the  "  straight."  You  may 
find  the  "  reliable  "  and  the  "  straight "  but  without 
it  being  news. 

"  We  have  nothing  to  hide."  H'm !  only  you  must 
look  at  everything  with  German-coloured  glasses.  If 
you  happen  to  try  to  talk  with  a  private,  very  soon  his 
superior  officer  will  cut  short  his  answers  and  reply  for 


8  BEHIND  THE  GERMAN  VEIL 

him.  If  for  the  sake  of  argument  you  take  the  "  purely 
hypothetical  "  case,  "  Suppose  Germany  should  be  de- 
feated? "  you  are  told  at  once  that  unless  you  wish  to 
make  yourself  thoroughly  unpopular  in  Germany,  and 
have  your  entire  mission  become  an  utter  failure,  you 
must  not  suggest  such  "  impossible  abstract  cases  " ; 
you  must  not  "  put  such  ideas  into  people's  heads !  " 

Except  in  the  case  of  certain  show  prisoners'  camps, 
every  journalist  is  rigorously  excluded  from  Belgium, 
Luxembourg  and  Poland,  which  have  remained  terra 
incognita  to  all  journalists,  except  those  who  have  given 
abundant  proofs  that  they  were  willing  to  read  and  see 
everything  with  German  spectacles.  And  even  they  are 
not  allowed  to  roam  at  large.  If  you  want  any  inter- 
views you  must  accept  the  "  made  in  Germany  "  vari- 
ety. In  fine,  they  have  "  nothing  to  hide,"  but  you 
must  ask  no  questions ;  you  must  travel  round  Germany 
hand  in  hand  with  your  German  guardian  angel,  who 
watches  and  wards  you  night  and  day ;  and  except 
w^hen  he  tells  you  to  "  stop,  look  and  listen,"  you  must 
"  Move  on,"  deaf,  dumb  and  blind ! 

Consequently,  to  be  a  "  successful "  journalist  in 
Germany  means  selling  your  birthright  for  a  mess  of 
pottage.  Let  me  hasten,  though,  to  add  that  the  sale 
is  so  cleverly  disguised  that  the  majority  of  neutral 
journalists  are  unaware  of  it.  Why?  Ah,  that  is 
difficult  to  explain.     It  is  the  German  atmosphere. 

The  German  war  atmosphere  has  a  most  peculiar, 
strange  and  indescribable  effect  upon  the  mind.  I  feel 
that  I  can  state  without  fear  of  contradiction  that  out 
of  every  thousand  real  neutrals  that  enter  Germany, 
nine  hundred  and  ninety-nine  succumb  within  a  few 
short  weeks  to  German  "  ideals  "  and  points  of  view. 
Indeed,  you  must  carry  the  strongest  pro- Ally  or  pro- 


THE  VEIL  AND  THE  METHODS  9 

British  convictions,  in  order  to  be  able  to  withstand 
the  German  influence  getting  hold  of  jou. 

It  is  a  most  marvellous,  a  most  extraordinary  phe- 
nomenon ;  it  is  something  indefinably  subtle,  and  in  my 
heart  I  cannot  blame  any  colleagues  for  having  become 
hypnotised  by  that  influence.  The  German  arguments 
are  convincing;  they  are  plausible,  logical,  final,  to  the 
German  and  the  German-prepared  mind.  I  fear  I 
cannot  even  attempt  to  describe  it  within  the  space  of 
a  chapter.  It  has  become  something  like  the  spirit 
of  religion. 

I  have  watched  and  seen  its  effect  upon  colleagues 
who  entered  Germany  in  a  neutral  state  of  mind,  some 
even  with  a  leaning  towards  the  Allied  side.  Within  a 
week  they  were  "  converted." 

And  I  may  as  well  confess  right  now  that  even  I, 
heart,  body  and  soul  pro-British  as  I  am  and  have  been 
for  twelve  years,  even  I  realise  that  at  times  it  was  only 
the  strong  impenetrable  armour  of  my  motto,  "  Right 
or  Wrong  —  England,"  that  kept  me  unscathed. 

This  is  what  a  neutral  journalist  in  Germany  finds 
himself  pitted  against.  To  collect  news  and  reliable 
impressions  in  spite  of  those  influences,  which  are  at 
work  against  you  day  and  night,  let  me  assure  you,  is 
no  easy  task. 

And  with  the  same  assiduity  the  German  cause  is 
preached  and  served  in  neutral  countries. 

There  are  three  diff'erent  ways  open  to  a  journalist 
in  the  Fatherland. 

The  first  way  —  and  to  some  of  the  fraternity  the 
simplest  and  easiest  —  is  to  throw  all  self-respect  to  the 
winds ;  to  learn  to  recite  Lissauer's  "  Hymn  of  Hate," 
forwards,  backwards  and  sideways ;  to  write  daily 
eulogies    on    the    land    that    holds    the    monopoly    of 


10  BEHIND  THE  GERMAN  VEIL 

"  Kultur  " ;  in  short,  to  become  a  German  Press  agent. 

The  second  procedure  is  to  remain  quietly  in  Berlin 

and   swallow    (or   at  least   pretend   to)    the  periodical 

"items  of  "  news  "  that  the  G.G.S.  and  the  F.O.  ladle  out 

to  you,  while  at  the  same  time  you  are  gathering  your 

own  impressions  and  drawing  your  own  conclusions. 

The  third  method  is  the  most  interesting  but,  of 
course,  equally  the  most  hazardous.  Just  take  your 
pen  —  I  almost  said  "  gun  " — ^  and  prowl  about  the 
country  and  see  what  you  can  pot.  Of  course,  wher- 
ever your  covers  look  promising  you  will  meet  with  the 
notice,  that  trespassers  will  be  prosecuted ;  in  other 
words,  the  sign :  "  Verboten,"  but  never  mind  that. 
Those  are  the  occasions  when  you  do  not  understand 
German.^ 

The  German  is  not  an  adventurer  like  the  English- 
man, the  American,  the  Dutchman.  He  is  too  cau- 
tious ;  he  must  carefully  figure  out  every  motive,  and 
then,  when  —  theoretically  —  the  project  has  become 
a  certainty,  he  will  strike.  Their  lives,  their  minds, 
are  over-organised.  Emdens,  Mbwes,  Channel  Raiders 
are  rare  birds  in  the  German  psychology. 

I  chose  the  third  method  of  working. 

It  was  not  entirely  a  matter  of  choice,  either.  Since 
I  could  not,  would  not,  produce  convincing  proofs  of 
German  ideas  of  neutrality  —  meaning,  of  course,  pro- 
Germanism  —  and  since  I  refused  to  give  assurances  — 
my  word  of  honour  —  that  I  would  remain  in  Germany 

1  Except  for  those  who  follow  the  first  method,  it  is  absolutely- 
essential  to  know  the  German  language;  if  the  third  method  be  the 
one  you  have  chosen,  you  must  be  able  to  speak  it  fluently.  I  am 
drawing  attention  to  this  point,  because  I  think  that  too  much  im- 
portance has  been  attached  to  impressions  and  opinions  that  have 
been  brought  out  of  Germany  by  people  who  were  totally  un- 
acquainted with  the  language.  I  believe  that  such  a  drawback  at 
once  disqualifies  any  one  from  passing  an  intelligent  judgment  on 
German  affairs  of  to-day. 


THE  VEIL  AND  THE  METHODS  11 

for  the  duration  of  the  war,  I  received  very  little  en- 
couragement from  German  officialdom  in  my  journal- 
istic ambitions. 

Let  me  record  here  for  the  special  edification  of  one 
or  two  doubting  British  Thomases  (no  connection  with 
Thomas  Atkins,  I  am  relieved  to  say)  who  have  ques- 
tioned my  pro-British  sympathies,  that  I  never  owned 
one  single  German  pass  or  permit,  neither  from  the 
General  Staff  nor  from  the  Foreign  Office,  during  the 
whole  period  of  my  German  pilgrimage. 

Had  it  not  been  for  my  numerous  letters  of  introduc- 
tion ^  my  harvest  might  have  been  very  scanty.  My 
German  hosts  reckoned  without  a  few  items  in  my 
journalistic  armoury  —  first,  my  letter  of  introduction 
to  General  von  Hindenburg,  from  the  General's  own 
nephew ;  second,  a  fair  knowledge  of  the  German 
character;  third,  my  American  journalistic  training. 
As  John  Buchan,  in  that  most  delightful  story  of  his 
— "  Greenmantle  " —  says  :  "  You  cannot  fool  the  Ger- 
mans, but  you  can  bluff  them."  And  bluff  them  I  did 
to  my  heart's  content,  and  that,  I  assure  you,  is  saying 
a  lot,  because  it  was  a  greedy  journalistic  heart  that 
came  to  German3\  The  Hindenburg  letter  worked  like 
a  charm ;  it  proved  a  veritable  golden  key  that  un- 
locked almost  every  door,  even  that  of  General  Staffs 
in  the  field.  It  acted  like  a  magic  carpet  that  trans- 
ported me  from  Lodsz  to  Lille ;  from  Wilhelmshaven  to 
Kiel ;  from  Hamburg  to  Munich ;  in  fine,  from  East  to 
West  and  from  North  to  South.  It  was  a  pass  on 
military  trains ;  it  procured  me  "  express  "  motor-cars 
in  places  where  it  was  "  Strengstens  Verboten  "  for  any 
civilian  to  show  his  nose ;  it  got  me  out  of  scrapes  that 
even  to-day  make  me  feel  hot  and  cold  down  my  spine, 
and,  finally,  it  seemed  to  open  every  German  mouth 

1  See  Chapter  II. 


12  BEHIND  THE  GERMAN  VEIL 

from  Generals  down  to  cooks.  Nay,  but  for  the  very 
unfortunate  accident  which  occurred  in  Fleet  Street, 
the  effect  of  which  was  reverberated  in  the  Wilhelm- 
strasse,  Berlin,  it  might  even  have  procured  me  an  in- 
vitation to  the  Palace  of  Unter  den  Linden  or  Potsdam. 

Though  many  moons  have  passed,  I  can  still  chuckle 
with  delight  at  the  various  and  devious  ways  I  was 
able  to  bluff  the  people  who  are  out  to  bluff  the  whole 
world.  I  can  still  see  the  incredulous  face  of  Baron 
Mumm  von  Schwarzenstein,  when  I  swaggered  into  his 
office  one  morning  and  casually  mentioned  that  I  had 
just  been  to  see  Hindenburg!  It  was  impossible,  he 
claimed,  simply  impossible ;  it  was  "  Verboten."  He 
thought  it  was  just  a  piece  of  "  bluff."  So  it  was, 
dear  Baron,  but  not  the  sort  of  bluff  you  thought.-' 

And  I  can  also  still  see  Captain  Cammerer's  (one  of 
Hindenburg's  Staff  officers )  flabbergasted  —  it's  the 
only  term  that  fits  —  expression,  when  hardly  twelve 
hours  after  he  had  telephonically  informed  General 
Count  von  Schlieffen  that  it  was  "  Verboten  "  for  me  to 
come  to  Hindenburg's  Headquarters,  I  appeared  before 
him,  chaperoned  by  Hindenburg's  personal  A.  D.  C. ! 

By  some  curious  coincidence  an  old  New  York  col- 
league of  mine,  Cyril  Brown,  of  the  New  Yorh  Times, 
had  been  bitten  by  the  "  Wanderlust,"  or  should  we 
call  it  "  American  Joumalitis,"  about  the  same  time  as 
I,  only  he  followed  a  famous  American's  advice:  "  Go 
West,  young  man,  go  West." 

Brown  actually  got  inside  the  Crown  Prince's  Head- 

1  All  the  same,  that  very  night  a  police  official  by  the  name  of 
Herr  Mercier  —  a  namesake  of  the  famous  Cardinal  —  called  upon 
me,  and  invited  me  to  accompany  him  to  the  Alexanderplatz 
(Berlin  Scotland  Yard).  There  I  had  to  make  a  full  statement 
of  how  and  when  and  why  I  had  reached  Hindenburg's  head- 
quarters, etc.,  etc.  Let  us  hope  that  it  did  not  get  the  General 
into  trouble! 


THE  VEIL  AND  THE  METHODS  13 

quarters  and  nearly  "  flagged  "  the  Kaiser's  car,  with 
the  intention  of  asking  the  War  Lord  for  an  interview. 
When  on  our  return  to  Berlin  Brown  and  I  compared 
notes,  we  decided  that  our  system  was  by  far  preferable 
to  the  regular,  personally-conducted-journalistic-Cook- 
Tours-de-Luxe,  by  which  our  more  "  fortunate  "  col- 
leagues were  regularly  permitted  to  "  see  "  Germany. 

It  was  American  Journalism  "  as  usual,"  and  with  a 
vengeance. 

If  during  my  many  and  my  very  unofficial,  even  clan- 
destine peregrinations  through  the  Fatherland,  I  un- 
earthed information,  impressions  and  knowledge  which 
they  will  claim  is  not  of  a  journalistic  nature,  I  disown 
every  and  any  responsibility  on  that  score,  but  blame 
entirely  the  German  system  of  spoon-fed,  make-believe, 
sugar-coated  journalism.  Besides,  after  a  certain  in- 
cident, which  occurred  within  a  month  after  my  arrival 
in  Germany,^  I  had  an  additional  incentive. 

But,  apart  from  all  that,  they  had  "  nothing  to 
hide!" 

Well  —  nous  verrons  ce  que  nous  verrons! 

iSee  Chapter  III. 


CHAPTER  II 

MY  "  POINT  d'aPPUI  " ROME 

AT  the  outset  I  wish  to  express  my  most  sincere 
thanks  to  His  Excellency  the  American  Ambas- 
sador in  Rome,  Mr.  Thomas  Nelson  Page,  to  several 
members  of  his  staff,  and  to  His  Excellency  the  very 
American  Ambassador  in  Berlin,  Judge  Gerard.  All  I 
can  say  is  that  their  assistance  is  as  deeply  appreciated 
as  it  has  been  welcome  and  valuable. 

Mr.  Page,  whom  I  have  known  for  several  years  in 
America,  and  whom  I  interviewed  on  various  occasions, 
furnished  me  with  warm  personal  recommendations  to 
the  British  Ambassador,  Sir  Rennell  Rodd ;  to  the 
German  Envoy,  Prince  von  Biilow,  and  to  Baron  Mac- 
chio,  who  was  then  Austrian  Ambassador  in  Rome. 

When  I  presented  my  credentials  to  Judge  Gerard  in 
Berlin,  he  made  me  feel  at  home  at  once  by  inquiring 
after  the  health  and  welfare  of  "  Bob,"  my  faithful 
dog-friend  of  twelve  years'  standing.  Judge  Gerard, 
although  not  a  personal  acquaintance  of  mine,  had 
known  of  my  work  in  America,  and  he  passed  me  on  to 
various  German  officials.  I  feel  almost  tempted  to 
include  in  this  preamble  of  thanks  Prince  von  Billow, 
his  able  private  secretary.  Dr.  Friederich,  and  Herr 
von  Hindenburg,  first  secretary  of  the  German  Em- 
bassy in  Rome  at  the  time,  for  their  many  valuable 
letters  of  introduction  to  prominent  German  officials. 
But  perhaps  they  would  not  appreciate  it ! 

I  spent  many  an  interesting,  instructive  and  enter- 
taining hour  at  the  Villa  Malte  —  Prince  Billow's  Ro- 

14 


MY  «  POINT  D'APPUI  "—  ROME  l5 

man  residence;  at  the  Palazzo  Gaffarelli,  the  German 
Embassy,  and  in  various  other  German  haunts  in  Rome. 

Neutrality  these  days  is  frequently,  like  morality, 
very  much  a  matter  of  geography.  The  saying, 
"  When  in  Rome  do  as  the  Romans  do,"  had  in  those 
pre-Italian  war  days  lost  its  meaning.  I  must  admit 
that  I  was  often  at  a  loss  to  know  what  the  Romans 
themselves  were  doing. 

It  goes  without  saying  that  frequently  extremely 
delicate  and  difficult  situations  developed.  I  w^as  sub- 
jected to  many  keen  cross-examinations;  many  feelers 
were  thrown  out  to  ascertain  on  which  side  of  the  quarrel 
my  sympathies  really  lay.  But  I  maintained  my 
neutralit3\  Often  it  was  a  case  of  out-diplomating  the 
diplomats.  I  discoursed  many  a  time  on  the  three  years 
I  had  spent  in  Germany  as  a  student,  saying  how  "  un- 
vergesslich "  (unforgettable)  they  were  —  which  was 
quite  true ;  I  praised  their  army  as  one  of  the  great- 
est and  most  perfect  organisations  in  the  world.  I 
made  much  of  their  music,  etc. ;  in  fact  I  assiduously 
brought  in  all  the  subjects  on  which  I  could  converse 
with  a  certain  amount  of  admiration. 

I  stood  the  preliminary  test !  I  had  proved  myself 
sufficiently  neutral,  and  therefore  I  should  be  given  all 
possible  assistance  to  enable  me  to  obtain  in  Germany 
material  for  — "  Articles  of  the  right  sort !  " —  as  one 
of  my  letters  of  introduction  described  it.  H'm !  I 
thought,  our  ideas  might  differ  somewhat  on  the  defini- 
tion of  the  "  right  sort." 

German-like,  they  did  things  thoroughly.  Every 
German  I  met  offered  to  give  me  a  letter.  I  had  no 
illusion  that  this  was  because  they  were  anxious  to  help 
me,  but  because  they  thought  I  could  help  them.  After 
three  weeks  I  left  Rome  with  over  thirty  letters  of  in- 
troduction to  many  prominent  Germans,  almost  from 


16  BEHIND  THE  GERMAN  VEIL 

the  Kaiser  downwards.  It  was  more  than  hinted  to  me 
that  through  those  letters  I  might  even  obtain  an 
audience  with  the  War  Lord. 

Anyhow,  the  list  was  important  and  interesting,  if 
only  on  account  of  its  heterogeneous  composition. 

First,  there  came  several  official  introductions  to  the 
Foreign  Office,  to  Herr  von  Jagow,  to  Herr  Zimmer- 
man, to  Baron  Mumm  von  Schwarzenstein.  Then  there 
was  a  letter  to  Matthias  Erzberger,  leader  of  the 
Catholic  Centrum  Party  in  the  Reichstag,  chief  of  the 
International  Press  Bureau,  and  late  German  Press 
Agent  (manipulator  would  be  a  better  word)  in  Italy, 
and  a  man  closely  connected  with  the  Kaiser.  There 
were  also  letters  to  General  von  Hindenburg,  von  Below 
and  von  Beseler,  all  from  personal  relatives  (of  the 
generals;  not  mine,  please).  There  was  a  letter  to 
Herr  Arthur  von  Gwinner,  probably  Germany's  great- 
est financial  genius,  Director-Manager  of  the  Deutsche 
Bank,  and  the  man  behind  the  Bagdad  Railroad  scheme. 
To  Herr  Krupp  von  Bohlen,  and  to  one  of  his  greatest 
technical  experts,  Herr  Direktor  Doktor  Ehrens- 
berger ;  ^  to  the  Secretary  of  the  Colonies,  Solf,  and 
to  his  amusing  firebrand  A.D.C.,  Dr.  Biicher;  to  Count 
von  Hertling,  the  Bavarian  Minister  of  Foreign  Af- 
fairs ;  to  the  Governor  of  Strassburg,  Baron  von  Stein ; 
to  Dr.  Walther  Rathenau,  Germany's  raw-material 
genius;  to  His  Excellency  the  Lord  Mayor  of  Berlin, 
Herr  Wehrmuth;  to  Professor  Francke,  head  of  the 
Bureau  of  Social  Economics;  to  Dr.  Michaelis,  Dr. 
Zimmerman  and  Dr.  Mantler,  chief  editors  respectively 
of  the  Berliner  Tageblatt,  the  Berliner  Lokal  Anzeiger, 

1  It  is  interesting  to  note  that  this  specialist  accompanied  Herr 
Krupp  on  his  sight-seeing  trip  through  English  shipyards  and 
war-material  factories   about  six  weeks  before  the  outbreak  of 


1,   2 


ui  ? 


"    -C:      .   *» 

f--     ?  "5"-§ 


5-1 


MY  "  POINT  D'APPUI  "—  ROME  17 

and  the  notorious  "  Wolff  News  Agency  " ;  to  General 
Baron  von  Nagel,  chief  of  the  Bavarian  General  Staff; 
to  Major  Deutelmoser,  chief  of  the  Press  Bureau  of 
the  General  Staff;  to  Capitan-Leutnant  Lohlein,  of  the 
"  Marineamt " ;  and  to  a  number  of  lesser  lights  at 
the  Admiralty,  the  War  Office  and  the  General  Staff. 

Quite  a  respectable  list,  I  should  think,  to  serve  as 
a  working  basis  for  an  ambitious  journalist  thirsting 
for  knowledge! 

I  should  like  to  state  that  the  majority  of  inter- 
views and  opinions  I  have  quoted  in  the  following  pages 
represent  the  ideas  of  Germans  who  were  in  close  touch 
with  actual  conditions,  with  the  "  powers  that  be,"  and, 
several  of  them,  even  with  the  Emperor  himself. 

I  am  of  the  opinion  that  most  of  the  ideas  they  ex- 
pressed they  honestly  believed  to  be  true,  however  ab- 
surd this  may  seem  from  our  point  of  view.  Finally, 
I  must  reluctantly  admit  that  several  of  the  predictions 
that  were  made  to  me  have  come  true.  Amongst  these 
are  the  repulse  of  the  Russian  armies,  the  unsuccessful 
attempt  to  force  the  Dardanelles,  the  failure  of  the 
Bagdad  advance,  the  forcing  of  the  road  to  Constan- 
tinople, and  several  others.  On  the  other  hand,  many 
of  them  proved  wrong,  such  as  the  capture  of  Calais, 
the  separate  peace  with  Russia  (to  be  preceded  by  a 
revolution);  that  England  would  never  submit  to-  con- 
scription; that  Italy  could  and  would  be  bought  off. 
Amongst  those  that  are  still  on  the  knees  of  the  gods 
(and  also,  let  us  hope,  at  the  point  of  British  bayonets) 
are  the  prophecies  that :  "  The  Allies  will  never  drive 
the  Germans  out  of  Belgium ;  that  the  Russians  will 
never  drive  the  Germans  back  over  the  Vistula,  and  that 
the  Turks  will  henceforth  remain  inseparably  connected 
with  Germany  and  Austria." 

Already  in  1915  many  well-informed  Germans  admit- 


18  BEHIND  THE  GERMAN  VEIL 

ted  to  me  that  Germany  could  not  win,  but  they  main- 
tained that,  on  the  other  hand,  she  would  not  lose 
either,  except  of  course  such  losses  as  naturally  fall 
to  the  lot  of  all  nations  engaged  in  a  war  of  such  mag- 
nitude. Among  the  sayings  most  frequently  and  con- 
fidently quoted  were  the  Chancellor's  words : 
"  Germany  cannot  be  destroyed." 


CHAPTER  III 

"  THE    ADDER  " 

"  If  you  see  an  adder,  and  you  know  it  is  an  adder,  leave  it 
alone,  unless  you're  certain  you  can  kill  it." — (My   Nuhse.) 

I  HAVE  already  stated  that  I  entered  Germany  with 
as  open  a  mind  as  possible,  and  in  that  spirit  I 
commenced  my  mission. 

But,  alas !  it  is  difficult,  in  some  cases  impossible  — 
as  in  mine  —  to  remain  for  long  in  Germany  as  a  purely 
objective  observer. 

One  incident  suddenly  changed  my  whole  attitude, 
my  intentions,  and  the  entire  object  of  my  mission.  It 
made  me  forget  almost  completely  that  I  was  a  neutral 
journalist,  I  only  remembered  that  I  was  dealing  with 
.  .  .  adders. 

But  let  me  record  the  incident  that  so  affected  ray 
future  line  of  action. 

One  night,  during  my  third  week  in  Berlin,  I  met  at 
the  American  Bar  of  the  Adlon  Hotel,  where  I  was 
staying,  a  certain  Baron  Hochwachter.  In  my  chap- 
ter on  "  Spies  and  Spying  "  I  shall  have  something  more 
to  say  about  this  "  gentleman."  He  was  a  lieutenant 
in  one  of  the  crack  Prussian  Guard  regiments.  Until 
August  4th,  1914,  he  was  would-be  director  of  the 
Daimler  Motor  Works  (of  Stuttgart)  in  London. 

For  the  last  ten  years  I  have  seen  Hochwachter  in 
various  parts  of  the  globe.  I  saw  him  regularly  dur- 
ing the  season  at  the  best  London  hotels ;  I  have  seen 
him  driving  in  the  Bois  de  Boulogne  and  found  him  at 
the  Grand  Hotel  in  Rome.  I  have  seen  him  in  almost 
every  place  on  the  Riviera  that  I  ever  spent  a  winter 

19 


20  BEHIND  THE  GERMAN  VEIL 

in,  and  I  have  come  across  him  on  Fifth  Avenue,  New 
York. 

I  ahvays  put  him  down  as  one  of  those  amateur  globe- 
trotters, the  kind  of  man  who  lives  solely  to  have  a 
good  time.      I  know  better  now. 

The  topic — a  favourite  one  at  2  a.  m. — was  Spies 
and  Spying.  Hochwachter  was  in  very  convivial  spir- 
its, and  .   .   .  getting  worse. 

"  Bah !  "  he  sneered,  "  of  all  countries  England  is 
the  easiest  and,  at  the  same  time,  the  most  pleasant 
in  which  to  carry  on  '  military  research  work.'  "  (Note 
the  scientific  term  for  spying!) 

I  thought  it  good  policy  to  contradict  him,  and  I  got 
my  rise.  He  lifted  his  champagne  glass,  winked  at  me 
with  one  sodden  eye,  and  smilingly  said :  "  Cherchez 
la  femme !     Prosit.     Here's  to  them." 

Then  he  proceeded  to  give  details.  Notwithstanding 
his  condition,  he  gave  us  with  diabolical  cleverness  a 
dissertation  on  English  "  Home  and  Family  Life."  He 
described  how  in  England  more  than  in  any  other  coun- 
try, the  wife  has  the  confidence  of  her  husband,  and 
shares  the  secrets  of  his  affairs,  no  matter  whether 
they  be  legal,  political,  diplomatic,  naval  and  military, 
or  commercial. 

"  Hah !  "  he  laughed ;  "  it's  a  matter  of  '  mobilising 
the  ladies,'  my  friend,  always  the  ladies." 

It  amounted  to  this,  that  Englishwomen  were  often 
made  the  innocent  dupes  and  accomplices  of  the  Ger- 
man spy,  who  enters  their  homes  as  an  honoured  guest 
or  friend. 

No,  dear  reader,  I  did  not  break  the  fellow's  neck, 
I  did  not  even  knock  him  down,  or  call  him  a  damned 
blackguard  and  cur. 

But  I  did  better  than  all  three. 


"THE  ADDER"  21 

Then  and  there  I  took  a  solemn,  silent  oath.  There, 
in  front  of  the  bar  at  the  Adlon  Hotel,  Berlin,  I  swore 
that  I  would  avenge  English  womanhood,  English 
"  Home  and  Family  Life,"  if  it  took  me  a  lifetime  to 
do  it.  I  vowed  that  before  I  was  through  with  Ger- 
many —  never  with  the  Germans  —  come  what  may,  I 
should  know  a  bit  more  about  their  despicable,  low, 
dastardly  system  of  espionage.  I  constituted  myself 
an  unofficial  investigator  of  the  whole  rotten  German 
fabric  of  spying  and  lying. 

But  since  there  is  hardly  any  German  sphere  which 
is  not  permeated  with  the  espionage  canker ;  since  there 
is  hardly  any  German  class  that  is  not  doing  its  share 
in  spying,  in  one  form  or  another,  I  naturally  found 
out  many  interesting  and  valuable  details,  which,  as  a 
foreign  journalist,  I  had  no  business  to  know. 

But  the  responsibility  of  that  rests  with  the  Germans 
and  the  German  system.  Oh,  I  know  that  I  ran  many 
risks,  and  my  task  was  often  unpleasant ;  but  whenever 
I  weakened  in  my  resolution,  or  felt  certain  qualms 
about  some  of  the  things  I  had  to  say  or  do,  I  merely 
recalled :  "  Mobilisation  of  the  Ladies,"  for  "  Deutsch- 
land  iiber  Alles,"  and  that  never  failed  to  give  me 
strength,  courage  and  determination. 

"  Well,  nurse,  I  did  not  leave  it  alone,  neither  did  I  kill  it,  but  I 
learned  the  dickens  of  a  lot  about  adders." 


CHAPTER  IV 

GERMAN    MIND    AND    CHAEACTEE 

I  HAVE  followed  with  a  great  deal  of  interest  tin 
various  phases  of  the  alien  enemy  question  in  this 
country.  Your  perfect  confidence  in  gratitude,  one  of 
the  greatest,  if  not  the  greatest,  of  human  qualities, 
seems  to  me  little  short  of  marvellous.  The  French 
have  a  saying:  "Tout  comprendre  c'est  tout  par- 
donner " ;  but  they  soon  found  out  that  that  was  a 
peace-time  motto,  not  very  practical  in  war-time. 
They  have  changed  it  now  (in  so  far  as  it  applies  to 
Germans)  into:     "To  understand  all  is  to  intern  all." 

But,  then,  of  course  the  French  know  a  bit  more 
about  the  Germans  than  you  do. 

I  have  no  intention  of  setting  up  as  a  psychological 
or  philosophical  expert,  but  I  will  endeavour  to  sketch 
for  your  benefit  a  few  of  the  main  traits  of  the  German 
character,  upbringing,  teaching,  and  of  ideas  of  "  play- 
ing the  game." 

I  will  not  enter  here  into  the  "  whys "  and  the 
"  wherefores,"  but  it  is  a  sad,  though  true,  fact  that 
the  majority  of  people  in  this  country  are  hopelessly 
ill-informed  about  Germany. 

The  Kaiser  is  to-day  the  most  popular  idol  in  Ger- 
many, not  even  excepting  Hindenburg.  The  confidence, 
the  trust  in  him,  is  so  general,  so  deep  and  so  intense, 
that  if  Germany  should  from  now  on  be  steadily  pushed 
back ;  if  she  were  to  lose  every  battle  and  be  beaten  to 
her  knees,  it  would  increase  rather  than  weaken  his 

22 


GERMAN  MIND  AND  CHARACTER        23 

popularity  and  the  love  his  subjects  have  for  him.  It 
takes  more  than  books  on  Germany,  more  than  the 
vivid  stories  of  war  correspondents  and  "  expert  '* 
articles  by  "  famous  "  strategists,  to  make  you  under- 
stand the  fanatical  spirit  of  patriotism  by  which  the 
German  mind  is  imbued  and  obsessed.  It  is  as  un- 
fathomable as  the  spirit  of  religion.  From  the  moment 
that  it  is  properly  kindled,  it  is  the  most  intense,  the 
most  sincere  emotion  they  possess.  According  to  their 
creed  it  is  not  necessary  to  live,  but  the  first  duty  of  all 
is  to  be  ready  to  lay  down  your  life  for  the  Fatherland. 
Nothing  matters ;  only  the  Fatherland  counts.  You 
may  murder,  steal,  spy,  cheat  —  it  does  not  matter  if 
it  is  for  the  Fatherland.     The  end  sanctifies  all  means. 

I  have  talked,  since  the  war,  to  hundreds  of  Germans 
of  all  classes,  from  the  highest  to  the  lowest,  and  one 
feeling  is  common  to  them  all,  viz. :  Confidence,  abso- 
lute confidence  and  trust  in  their  leaders.  Every  one 
feels  a  certain  responsibility,  feels  that  he  would  en- 
danger the  interests  of  the  Fatherland  by  not  doing  his 
bit,  the  particular  work  he  has  been  assigned  to  carry 
out,  w^hatever  that  may  be.  While  I  was  with  the 
Belgian  army  I  read  a  letter  found  on  a  dead  German 
private,  written  by  his  mother.  The  concluding  sen- 
tence was :  "  But  we  must  not  complain.  The  Father- 
land has  called,  and  we  must  give  our  all  and  our  best 
ungrudgingly,  and  God  will  give  us  solace  and  strength 
to  bear  whatever  the  costs,  whatever  the  sorrows  may 
be.     Be  brave,  my  son,  and  God  bless  you  !  " 

That  spirit  of  patriotism  and  of  confidence  is  a 
mighty  factor  to  reckon  with,  and  should  not  be  over- 
looked. 

This  brings  me  to  the  question  of  the  German  at 
large  in  this  country.  With  a  few  exceptions,  as,  for 
instance,  those  cases  in  which  well-known  Britishers,  of 


24  BEHIND  THE  GERMAN  VEIL 

good  standing,  would  go  bail  without  reserve  for  the 
particular  individuals  in  question,  I  should  say,  from 
personal  knowledge  of  the  German  character,  intern  or 
repatriate  them  all.  Pass  an  Act  of  Parliament  can- 
celling all  naturalisations  from  a  certain  date,  if  neces- 
sary ;  but,  whatever  you  decide,  show  the  Germans  that 
you  are  master  in  your  own  house.  It  seems  a  tall 
statement  to  make,  but  it  is,  nevertheless,  a  fact  that 
several  high-placed  Germans  have  told  me  that  the  Brit- 
ish Government  would  not  dare  to  interfere  with  certain 
Germans  (naturalised  or  otherwise)  in  this  country, 
because  they  know  so  much  that  they  could  upset  the 
whole  political  apple-cart. 

I  will  concede  that  internment  or  repatriation  would 
be  hard,  very  hard  on  many  of  them ;  but  is  it  not  better 
to  be  hard,  even  unjust,  to  the  enemy  than  to  risk 
your  own  countrymen  and  women.'*  Is  it  not  better  to 
intern  ninety-nine  innocent  Germans  and  thereby  make 
certain  of  the  hundredth,  who  is  guilty.''  But  even 
about  that  injustice  you  need  not  feel  many  qualms. 
I  have  always  maintained,  and  I  do  so  now  after  several 
months  spent  in  Germany,  that  every  German  is  a  po- 
tential spy.  It  is  not  in  his  character,  it  is  his  charac- 
ter. It  lies  in  the  Nietzschian  doctrines  in  which  he 
has  been  sedulously  trained  from  early  childhood. 
"  Win,  win,  win !  "  "  Work  for  the  Fatherland  al- 
ways !  "  "  Win,  no  matter  by  what  means,  but  win !  " 
*'  It  is  your  duty  !  "  Naturalisation  is  only  a  means  to 
an  end.  The  terms  "  Play  the  game,"  or  "  Play  fair," 
at  least  as  we  understand  them,  are  foreign  to  him. 
Everything  is  fair  play  to  him,  in  peace  as  well  as  in 
war,  as  long  as  it  means  the  good  of  the  Fatherland. 

That  is  the  creed,  the  spirit  which  enables  Germany 
to  flood  every  country  in  peace-time  with  an  army  of 
spies.     Her  espionage  system  is  a  national  institution. 


GERMAN  MIND  AND  CHARACTER       25 

It  is  based  upon  the  national  character  and  the  national 
creed. 

So  when  a  German  is  not  serving  his  country,  not 
doing  his  duty  —  i.e.,  while  at  large  in  an  enemy  coun- 
try, not  trying  to  spy  or  in  other  ways  working  for  the 
Fatherland  —  do  not  flatter  yourself  that  it  is  from 
a  sense  of  loyalty  or  of  gratitude  towards  his  adopted 
country,  or  from  his  ethical  sense  of  duty  as  between 
host  and  guest.  A  thousand  times  no.  It  is  for  two 
reasons  only  that  he  will  neglect  his  creed,  his  duty  to 
the  Fatherland:  1.  Lack  of  opportunity;  2.  Lack  of 
leadership,  with  its  consequent  fear  for  his  own  skin. 

Some  wag  once  said  that  lack  of  opportunity  was 
responsible  for  a  great  deal  of  virtue.  Substitute 
"  loyalty "  for  "  virtue,"  and  you  have  the  German 
case.  Nothing  but  lack  of  opportunity  is  responsible 
for  this  so-called  "  loyalty  "  to  England. 

Let  us  examine  the  second  reason,  viz.,  personal 
cowardice.  Courage,  bravery  —  in  the  British  sense  of 
the  word  —  is  rare,  exceedingly  rare,  in  the  German. 
Fanaticism  is  far  from  being  courage.  The  German 
quality  is  of  a  very  different  brand  —  it  is  "  mass 
courage  " ;  perhaps  "  plural  courage  "  would  be  a  bet- 
ter term.  Isolate  a  German,  meet  him  alone,  discon- 
nect him  from  any  intercourse  with  his  fellow-country- 
men, and  I  think  you  will  find  him  meek,  quiet,  gentle, 
sentimental ;  in  short,  quite  easy  to  manage,  whether 
to  lead  or  to  drive.  As  I  point  out  in  another  chap- 
ter, when  he  is  alone  he  will  sing  sentimental  love  and 
slumber  songs.  But  put  two  of  them  together,  no 
matter  where,  whether  at  the  North  Pole,  in  Central 
China,  in  the  Argentine,  in  free  America,  or  in  the  heart 
of  England,  and  there  will  be  plotting  and  scheming. 
Two  terminals  of  the  German  patriotic  current  meet 
and   combustion   follows.     The  Fatherland   calls,   the 


26  BEHIND  THE  GERMAN  VEH. 

Fatherland  comes  first.  The  courage  of  two  Germans 
is  not  merely  the  courage  of  the  one  plus  the  courage 
of  the  second;  it  is  a  multiplication  sum  rather  than 
an  addition.  Deeds  which  he  would  have  trembled  to 
think  of,  let  alone  carry  out,  while  he  was  a  single  indi- 
vidual, he  will  plan  with  his  compatriot,  and  the  fear 
of  being  considered  by  the  other  a  false  patriot,  a  bad 
German,  will  overcome  a  great  deal  of  physical  fear. 
Now  he  sings :  "  Deutschland,  Deutschland  uber 
AUes  " ;  or  another  great  favourite :  "  I  am  a  Prus- 
sian ;  knowcst  thou  my  colours."  (Pray  God  you  never 
will!) 

Moral :  Keep  them  sequestrated,  keep  them  out  of 
temptation's  way,  because,  as  sure  as  fate,  they  can, 
in  Oscar  Wilde's  words,  "  resist  everything  but  tempta- 
tion "  when  it  comes  to  serving  the  Fatherland. 

You  might  just  as  well  try  to  teach  a  wolf  the  in- 
stincts (mind  you,  I  say  "  instincts,"  not  manners  or 
tricks)  of  a  pet  lamb,  than  expect  by  mere  surround- 
ings, precept,  or  example,  to  imbue  a  German  with  the 
principles  and  instincts  of  English  life  and  character. 

Not  even  your  famous  Dr.  Johnson's  remark  about 
Scotchmen,  with  whom  —  so  he  says  —  you  can  do  a 
lot  "  If  caught  young,"  applies  here. 

No  truer  line  was  ever  written  or  spoken  than: 

"  Once  a  German,  always  a  German." 


CHAPTER  V 

GERMAN    PSYCHOLOGY 

A  GERMAN'S  conception  of  psychology  is  based 
too  much  on  the  obvious  —  i.e.,  what  they  con- 
sider obvious.  Their  everlasting  rules  and  regulations, 
their  "  Verboten  "  at  every  turn,  combined  with  that 
respect  for  the  law,  and  love  of  authority  which  is 
bred  in  the  bone  of  every  good  Prussian,  have  made 
certain  grooves  in  the  Hun  brain,  certain  parallel  lines 
of  thought,  which,  once  you  have  traced  them,  are 
easy  to  follow.  The  wonderful  German  system  is  only 
perfect  and  wonderful  because  it  is  used  and  practised 
by,  and  created  for,  Germans.  Its  value  is,  I  think, 
greatly  over-rated. 

If  the  notice  "  Verboten "  appears  on  any  door, 
passage,  lawn,  railway  train,  church,  or  anything  else, 
then  in  nine  hundred  and  ninety-nine  cases  out  of  a 
thousand  it  is  unnecessary  to  take  any  further  safe- 
guards. Why.^  Because  the  German  Government, 
the  German  authorities,  have  as  much  confidence  in 
popular  respect  for  the  law  as  the  people  have  in  the 
authorities  being  justified  in  making  these  restrictions. 
Not  once,  but  a  hundred  times,  have  I  been  able  to 
test  this  mental  attitude.  A  good,  law-abiding,  re- 
spectable German  citizen  will  not  dream  of  passing 
through  that  door,  gate,  field,  or  step  into  that  railroad 
train. 

"  Yes,  sir,"  I  have  been  told  dozens  of  times  by 
Germans,  "  we  admit  that  the  authorities  think  for  us, 
but  they  have  always  thought  for  the  best.  All  this 
talk  about  the  iron  fist  is  nonsense.     You  foreigners 


28  BEHIND  THE  GERMAN  VEIL 

notice  only  the  regularity,  the  number  of  restrictions 
placed  on  our  daily  life.  We  Germans  are  brought  up 
with  them,  and,  what  is  most  important,  we  believe  in 
them.  Our  government  is  a  government  of  experts. 
In  every  department  we  have  only  the  best,  the  highest 
experts  that  can  be  got,  and  neither  money  nor  position 
can  save  the  man  if  he  is  inefficient.  Confidence,  my 
dear  sir,  is  the  great  secret  of  German  success."  I  then 
asked  him: 

"  And  what  would  the  people  think  of  their  leaders 
if  the  end  of  this  war  should  bring  disaster  to  Germany, 
should  prove  her  partial  destruction.''  What  would  the 
people  do?  Would  they  not  come  to  the  conclusion 
that  they  had  been  misled,  deceived  by  their  govern- 
ment, their  leaders,  their  newspapers  .'*  " 

His  answer  was  classic,  indeed,  typical  of  the  Ger- 
man, I  should  say,  of  the  Prussian  mind,  the  Prussian 
creed,  the  Prussian  faith : 

"  Ah,  I  know  what  you  are  thinking  of,  the  question 
so  prominently  discussed  in  the  enemy  press,  of  a  revo- 
lution in  Germany.  How  little  they  know  the  German 
mind !  Let  me  illustrate  my  answer  by  taking  a  hypo- 
thetical case.  You  are  a  sportsman  —  a  fencer,  I  take 
it.  Suppose  you  have  a  friend  living  somewhere  in 
the  country  who  is  a  crack  shot,  a  great  sportsman. 
He  is  very  popular  amongst  his  friends.  One  night 
several  ruffians  sneak  up  to  his  house,  to  rob  it,  and 
steal  his  hard-earned  belongings.  Your  friend  goes 
out  and  shoots  several  of  his  attackers,  but,  instead  of 
diminishing,  their  number  grows  and  grows.  He  is 
surrounded  on  all  sides  and  finally  beaten  to  his  knees. 
Mind  you,  it  is  not  a  fight  of  man  to  man,  but  of  many 
—  sey,  ten  against  one.  Would  you  lose  confidence  in 
his  prowess  as  an  expert  shot.?  Would  you  not  still 
readily  choose  him  to  represent  you,  your  club,  your 


^Ugcmcinc  QBct)rpflid)t  in  Cf  nglanb 


CoNscRiPTiox  IN  England 
John  Bull  harniiKj  the  Gooae  Step 


GERMAN  PSYCHOLOGY  29 

regiment  at  the  sporting  competitions?  Would  you 
turn  him  out  because  he  was  beaten  when  surrounded 
and  attacked  on  all  sides?  That  is  Germany's  case. 
Do  you  think  the  people  are  going  to  blame  the  govern- 
ment if  we  should  be  unable  to  conquer  England,  France, 
Russia,  Italy,  Serbia,  Montenegro,  Japan,  Belgium, 
Portugal,  Rumania?  No,  sir!  The  people  know; 
they  are  absolutely  convinced  that  our  enemies  forced 
us  to  fight,  and  nothing,  no  matter  what  may  be  the 
outcome  of  this  terrible  struggle,  can  change  that  con- 
viction. Ask  any  man,  from  the  highest  to  the  lowest, 
ask  any  woman,  be  she  duchess  or  charwoman,  ask  any 
child  at  school,  all  and  sundry  will  tell  you  that  we  are 
only  fighting  because  we  had  to,  to  protect  hearth  and 
home.     And  a  united  nation,  sir,  cannot  be  destroyed !  " 

My  informant  was  not  trying  to  throw  sand  in  my 
eyes ;  he  was  not  one  of  the  bombastic,  overbearing  type 
of  German.  He  spoke  carefully  and  slowly,  and  I 
know  that  he  meant  every  word  he  said. 

Such  is  the  Prussian  creed  of  to-day. 

The  moment  the  wheel  of  fortune  goes  against  Ger- 
many (not  economically,  but  strategetically,  i.e.,  on  the 
field  of  battle),  the  Government  will  cry  "Enough," 
and  it  will  say  to  the  German  people :  "  We  have  done 
all  we  could,  and  no  man  can  do  more."  And  the  Ger- 
man people  will  answer,  Yea  and  Amen,  and  will  whis- 
per:    "  Es  muss  sein  "  ("  It  has  to  be  "). 

But  I  have  wandered  far  from  the  "  Verboten  "  sign 
and  the  convolutions  of  a  German's  brain. 

If  any  one  is  seen  on  the  other  side  of  that  door,  in 
that  field,  or  on  that  train  —  why,  it  never  occurs  to 
any  oflScial  that  he  is  a  trespasser,  that  he  has  ignored 
the  command,  broken  the  law.  "  What  good  German 
would  do  that ! "     "  Of  course,"  so  he  argues,  "  that 


30  BEHIND  THE  GERMAN  VEIL 

man  must  have  excellent  authority  to  be  where  he  is, 
otherwise  he  would  not  be  there." 

I  wonder  if  you  realise  of  what  inestimable  advantage 
it  is  to  a  journalist  to  know  that  side  of  the  German 
mind?  I  have  made  use  of  that  knowledge  in  the  three 
months  that  I  spent  in  Germany  again  and  again,  and 
it  has  never  failed  me.  I  have  been  to  Kiel,  I  have 
walked  along  the  shores  of  Kiel  Bay.  I  have  travelled 
down  the  Elbe,  have  talked  to  the  Canal  oflBcials.  I 
travelled  from  Berlin  to  the  German  Eastern  Head- 
quarters to  see  Hindenburg,  yet  I  never  owned  a  single 
pass  or  permit,  or  any  other  authorisation  to  enter  the 
Unes  of  communication.  IBeing  where  I  was,  they  were 
taken  for  granted.  I  have  travelled  on  military  trains, 
I  have  passed  scores  of  sentries  and  guards  with  loaded 
rifles.     I  took  photographs  in  all  parts  of  Germany. 

I  was  challenged  once  by  General  Count  von  Schlief- 
fen  in  Allenstein,  who,  after  he  found  that  I  had  no  per- 
mit, sent  me  back  to  Berlin  —  i.e.,  he  told  me  to  go 
back.  He  did  not  think  it  necessary  to  see  that  I 
went.  It  was  "  Verboten  "  to  go  on ;  therefore,  to  his 
German  mind,  that  was  synonymous  with  going  back. 
I  did  no  such  thing,  but  travelled  in  exactly  the  opposite 
direction ! 

I  should  like  to  see  the  journalist,  no  matter  whether 
English,  French,  or  neutral,  trying  that  little  game  in 
the  British  or  French  lines  !  Oh !  la  !  la !  I  could  tell 
many  sad  tales  on  that  score,  several  from  personal 
experience. 

I  remember  one  melancholy  occasion  when  I  tried  to 
get  into  Ypres  without  the  usual  batch  of  Belgian,  Brit- 
ish and  French  permits.  I  did  not  get  within  ten  miles 
of  it,  and  I  vowed  after  that  experiment:  "Never 
again ! " 


CHAPTER  VI 

THE    PRESS    IN    /JERMANY 

INTRODUCTION 

"This  war  might  have  been  prevented  if  Germany,  instead  of 
gagging  our  Press,  had  allowed  it  to  become  the  organ  of  sound 
public  opinion,  edited,  as  in  all  other  modern  states,  by  competent 
and  educated  men." —  Herr  Chass,  Krupp's  Representative  in 
Berlin,  in  an  interview. 

I  CANNOT  do  better  by  way  of  introduction  to  my 
article  on  German  Press  matters,  than  to  quote 
here  a  story  which  was  frequently  related  to  me  in  Ger- 
many as  a  joke  on  German  Press  enterprise. 

I  must  explain  first  that  in  international  journalistic 
circles  it  is  no  secret  that  the  main  impedimenta  of  a 
German  editor  are  a  pair  of  scissors  and  a  pot  of 
paste.  The  story  told  here  goes  a  long  way  to  prove 
it. 

A  sub-editor,  who  had  only  recently  been  put  in 
charge  of  the  editorial  department  of  one  of  the  larger 
Berlin  dailies,  was  reading  up  some  of  the  old  1870—71 
war  despatches,  probably  to  glean  how  to  write  a  real- 
istic battle-scene.  It  was  during  the  fighting  near 
Soissons.  The  young  editor  goes  out  to  lunch  and 
leaves  one  of  the  old  clippings  on  his  desk.  Soon  after 
the  printer's  foreman  goes  into  the  editorial  oflBces  and 
finds  this  cutting. 

"  It's  awful,"  he  exclaims,  "  how  careless  these  young 

editors  are  nowadays.     Here  is  a  first-rate  story,  and 

he  calmly  goes  out  to  lunch  and  lets  it  wait  till  after 

dinner."     Whereupon  the  man  sets  to  work,  writes  the 

headlines,  edits  it,  and  makes  it  fit  for  the  press.     Half 

31 


32  BEHIND  THE  GERMAN  VEIL 

an  hour  later  Berlin  gasps  at  the  latest  war  news,  which 
announces : 

"  The  Battle  of  Metz.  In  the  battles  already  re- 
ferred to  near  Metz  and  the  Vosges,  the  French  lost 
in  prisoners  alone  173,000  men  and  4,000  officers,  in- 
cluding three  Field-Marshals,  one  of  them  being  Field- 
Marshal  Bazaine." 

Now  we  know  from  where  those  wonderful  German 
figures  of  enemy  losses  emanate. 

The  Press 

The  first  thing  you  do  after  your  arrival  in  Berlin  is 
to  ask  your  Ambassador  for  an  introduction  to  His 
Excellency  Baron  Mumm  von  Schwarzenstein,  of  the 
Foreign  Office ;  the  second  is  to  present  that  introduc- 
tion, together  with  your  passports,  letters,  and  every 
possible  recommendation  you  can  scrape  together.  The 
German,  especially  the  German  official,  loves  pomp  and 
circumstance,  and  the  more  big  names  you  can  trump 
up  the  deeper  he  bows  to  you. 

Baron  Mumm,  suave  in  manner  and  speaking  English 
perfectly,  reminds  one  very  much  of  Lord  Haldane. 
He  examines  your  credentials  and  then  asks  what  he 
can  do  for  you.  You  state  your  case,  and,  if  you  are 
lucky,  some  of  the  privileges  you  have  asked  for  will 
come  your  way  in,  say,  three  or  four  months'  time  — 
i.e.,  the  period  it  takes  to  "  graduate." 

Somebody  I  know  very  well  followed  a  different  pro- 
cedure. In  answer  to  Baron  Mumm's  question  of  what 
he  could  do  for  him,  this  young  man  boldly  answered: 
"  Your  Excellency,  I  have  come  here  to  offer  to  do 
something  for  you  —  for  Germany.  Your  papers  have 
been  complaining  about'  the  false  reports  with  regard 
to  the  Germans  and  Germany,  circulating  in  the  Euro- 
pean and  American  Press.     I  have  the  honour  to  pre- 


THE  PRESS  IN  GERMANY  33 

sent  myself  to  you  as  the  special  ambassador,  jour- 
nalistically speaking  of  course,  of  the  Kingdom  of 
Truth." 

It  was,  indeed,  a  novel  way  of  asking  for  privileges, 
and  it  actually  tickled  that  very  elusive  thing  —  the 
sense  of  humour  of  a  German  official;  nevertheless,  our 
young  friend  had  to  wait  his  appointed  place  in  the 
queue,  till  he  took  the  law  into  his  own  hands. 

As  I  said,  you  must  "  graduate."  The  course  varies 
from  two  to  four  months,  unless  you  become  a  sub- 
scriber to  the  "  Bribery  Association  (Unlimited),"  with 
headquarters  at  the  Hotel  Adlon.^ 

During  that  time  you  have  to  prove  beyond  any 
doubt  on  which  side  of  the  fence  you  are.  Perhaps  you 
are  American  or  Dutch;  therefore  "neutral"?  Ah, 
no,  my  friend ;  "  das  gibts  nicht."  As  the  farmer  said 
when  he  saw  a  giraffe  for  the  first  time :  "  There  is  no 
such  animal."  Neutral,  indeed !  No,  sir ;  "  who  is  not 
with  us  is  against  us."  (Let  me  state  at  once  that  I 
did  not  graduate.) 

In  order  to  graduate  you  must  have  trained  yourself 
until  you  have  reached  a  degree  of  perfection  in  the  art 
of  "  strafing."  It  is  not  sufficient  to  be  able  to  mutter 
parrot-like :  "  Gott  strafe  England,"  or  to  recite 
Lissauer's  Hymn  of  Hate  forwards  and  backwards. 
No,  at  all  times  of  the  day  and  night  you  must  be  ready 
to  answer  the  greeting  (now  de  rigueur  in  Germany)  : 
"Gott  strafe  England,"  with  an  immediate:  "  Er 
strafe  es  "  ("May  He  punish  it").  In  the  morning 
when  you  get  up,  before  you  begin  to  think  of  bath  or 
breakfast,  you  say  to  whoever  may  be  with  you: 
"  Gott  strafe  England !  "  If  you  happen  to  be  alone, 
you  can  shout  it  down  the  telephone,  and  you  will 
promptly  receive  the  reply,  made  with  great  ferocity 

1  See  Chapter  VIII. 


34  BEHIND  THE  GERMAN  VEIL 

or  sweetness,  as  the  case  may  be,  but  always  with  en- 
thusiasm :     "  Er  strafe  es  !  " 

From  all  one  hears  and  reads  these  days,  one  would 
gain  the  impression  that  Germany  is  a  very  paradise 
for  neutral  journalists. 

"  You  can  go  anywhere  you  like,  and  see  all  you  want 
to  see  in  Germany,"  so  I  was  told  in  neutral  countries. 

We  have  been  reading  for  months  past  of  the  inter- 
esting and  exclusive  material  German  and  neutral 
journalists  are  obtaining  in  the  Vaterland:  Prominent 
interviews ;  graphic  battle  stories  ;  little  pleasure  jaunts 
on  big  war-ships  in  the  North  Sea,  etc,  etc. 

How  are  all  these  "  newsbeats  "  obtained,  and  what 
is  at  the  bottom  of  these  skilful  journalistic  enter- 
prises? Let  me  say  at  once  that  it  took  very  little 
journalistic  enterprise  or  effort  to  obtain  most  of  the 
interviews  and  other  important  stories  emanating  from 
German  quarters. 

I  can  best  illustrate  my  point  by  quoting  a  conversa- 
tion which  I  had  one  evening  at  the  Hotel  Adlon  in 
Berlin,  with  Professor  Stein,  associate  editor  of  the 
Vossische  Zeitung.  It  took  place  during  the  early  part 
of  my  visit  to  Germany.  I  was  trying  to  sound  the 
Professor  about  any  possible  prospective  victims  to  be 
interviewed.  I  referred  to  the  prolific  harvest  Ameri- 
can journalists  had  reaped  since  the  beginning  of  the 
war,  and  expressed  the  hope  that  there  might  still  be 
some  virgin  ground  left  for  me  to  till.  Here  is  the 
Professor's  answer,  which  I  quote  almost  verbatim: 

"  The  interviews  with  the  Crown  Prince,  the  Crown 
Princess,  Admiral  von  Tirpitz,  von  Moltke,  the  German 
Chancellor,  General  von  Bernhardi,  and  many  others, 
were  merely  political  moves  on  the  great  chess-board 
of  war.  They  were,  every  one  of  them,  carefully 
thought  and  mapped  out  beforehand,  and  in  most  cases 


THE  PRESS  IN  GERMANY  35 

the  -finished  article,  translated  and  typewritten,  was 
handed  over  to  the  '  interviewer  ' —  i.e.,  to  the  man  who 
represented  those  papers  which  would  give  the  '  inter- 
view '  the  greatest  publicity.  Needless  to  say,  that  he 
must  practically  guarantee  beforehand  that  it  would  be 
printed  without  alterations  or  corrections  of  any  kind 
whatever.  I  myself  arranged  the  interview  with  Gen- 
eral von  Moltke.  The  American  journalist  received 
his  interview,  written  out,  ready  for  mail  or  cable. 
Now  I  believe  that  you  will  meet  with  great  difficulties, 
not  to  say  insurmountable  obstacles,  if  you  think  that 
you  will  be  able  to  interview  important  people  in  Ameri- 
can style.  When  in  Berlin  you  have  to  do  as  the 
Germans  do.  In  other  words,  to  accept  their  written 
statements,  and  promise  to  use  them  in  their  original 
form.  If  you  are  willing  to  accept  those  conditions, 
I  shall  be  glad  to  help  you  in  every  way.  Other  inter- 
views will  be  distributed  now  and  again  when  considered 
timely  and  judicious.  In  Germany  we  do  not  under- 
stand, and,  to  be  honest,  do  not  like  the  aggressive, 
independent  methods  American  journalists  employ  to 
gain  their  ends.  Their  system  may  be  all  right  in 
America,  but  you'll  find  that  it  does  not  work  here." 
So  far  the  Professor. 

Among  the  many  incidents  which  came  to  my  notice, 
illustrating  "  how  Germany  makes  interviews,"  one  was 
related  to  me  by  Mr.  Gaffney  (an  Irishman,  by  the 
way),  at  the  time  American  Consul-General  in  Munich. 
During  January,  1915,  when  the  arrest  of  Cardinal 
Mercier  was  very  much  en  evidence,  an  interview  was 
arranged  with  the  Archbishop  of  Munich.  The  Ameri- 
can reporter  who  was  sent  from  Berlin  to  Munich  did 
not  speak  a  word  of  German,  and  the  Archbishop  felt 
the  same  about  English.     But  what  matter!     The  in- 


36  BEHIND  THE  GERMAN  VEIL 

terview  was  typewritten  and  ready  before  the  reporter 
arrived  in  Munich.  An  interesting  detail  about  this 
bit  of  journalism  was  that  to  guard  against  "mis- 
takes "  and  doctoring,  a  copy  of  the  original  interview 
was  kept  in  the  arclrives  of  the  American  Consulate  at 
Munich.  Whether  the  duties  of  Consuls  include  the 
supervision  of  "  interviews  made  in  Germany  "  it  is  not 
for  me  to  say ;  but  I  do  know  that  Mr.  Gaff ney  took 
more  than  a  "  neutral "  interest  in  German  journal- 
ism. He  bitterly  complained  that  most  of  the  London 
correspondents  of  American  papers  were  English- 
men! 

"  This  system  of  granting  interviews,"  explained 
Baron  Mumm,  "  has  many  advantages.  Above  all, 
it  excludes  the  danger  of  those  journalistic  pitfalls  — 
misquotations.  If  Lord  Kitchener  had  followed  the 
German  system  with  Mr.  Cobb,  the  American  journalist, 
much  trouble  and  unpleasantness  might  have  been  saved 
to  both." 

It  appears  that  early  in  the  war  one  or  two  over- 
enterprising  American  reporters  had  the  disagreeable 
habit  of  asking  officials  embarrassing,  nay,  often  im- 
pertinent questions,  which  were  awkward  to  answer, 
and  would  have  caused  still  more  embarrassment  if  left 
unanswered.  With  the  usual  German  eye  for  system 
a  cure  was  quickly  found. 

Independent  journahsts;  educated  in  the  American 
school,  have  little  chance  of  bagging  big  game  in  Ger- 
many. 

Well,  qui  vivra,  verra. 

Here  is  a  dictum  which  a  fellow- journalist  supplied 
me  with  in  Berlin,  the  adoption  of  which  would  provide 
me  with  a  short  cut  to  journalistic  success: 

**  Write  your  articles  so  that  every  one  is  suitable  for 


THE  PRESS  IN  GERMANY  37 

reprint  in  pamphlet  form  by  the  German  Government, 
for  the  purpose  of  distribution  abroad." 

I  may  add  that  I  declined  the  honour.  Knowing  that 
it  would  be  waste  of  time  to  write  articles  for  foreign 
consumption  giving  my  real  impressions,  I  simply  re- 
frained from  writing  any  at  all,  and  contented  myself 
with  making  notes. 

My  personal  experiences  of  the  "  made-in-Germany  " 
variety  of  interviews  are  limited  to  two,  viz.,  with  the 
Secretary  for  the  late  German  Colonies,  Dr.  Solf,  and 
with  the  notorious  Herr  Erzberger,  Germany's  Inter- 
national Press  agent,  and  member  of  the  Reichstag. 
But  in  the  latter  case  I  obtained  an  audience  and  inter- 
view later  on,  which  was  not  of  the  German  brand. 

When  you  present  your  credentials  at  the  General 
Staff  (Presse  Abteilung  —  i.e..  Press  Department),  the 
first  thing  you  are  told  is :  "  We  have  nothing  to  hide. 
All  we  ask  of  you  is  that  you  write  the  truth." 

Solemnly  you  mumble :  "  The  truth,  the  whole  truth, 
and  nothing  but  the  truth."  But  wait.  The  truth.'' 
Yes,  but  you  must  look  at  it  through  spectacles  "  made 
in  Germany."  The  whole  truth.?  Ah,  no;  that's 
quite  a  different  pair  of  shoes. 

To  give  an  example.  I  w^as  naturally  most  anxious 
to  visit  Belgium,  and  especially  the  Grand  Duchy  of 
Luxembourg,  where  I  have  relations.  For  a  week  or 
two  I  w^as  put  off  with  promises  of  "  very  soon,"  etc. 
Then  followed  excuses.  The  General  Staff  was  hiding 
behind  the  Foreign  Office,  and  tdce  versa.  How  many 
times  have  I  travelled  the  road  between  76,  Wilhelm- 
strasse,  and  the  Konigsplatz .?  I  do  not  know.  All  I 
can  say  is  that  the  orderlies  at  the  General  Staff  began 
to  take  me  for  an  attache,  for  I  was  frequently  left  at 
large  in  the  building  without  the  usual  chaperon  of  a 
soldier. 


38  BEHIND  THE  GERMAN  VEIL 

I  was  told  that  Luxembourg  was  on  one  of  the  most 
important  lines  of  communication.  That  practically 
all  the  roads  leading  there  were  used  exclusively  for 
military  transports,  and  that  I  would  probably  have  a 
long  and  tedious  journe}^  of  several  days'  duration,  etc. 
I  assured  them  that  I  did  not  in  the  least  mind  the  dis- 
comforts of  the  trip.  My  protestations  were,  how- 
ever, of  no  avail. 

The  most  ludicrous  of  all  the  excuses  was  brought 
forward  one  afternoon  by  a  captain  from  the  War 
OflSce.  (I  say  "  afternoon  "  advisedly.  I  may  add  it 
was  tea-time  and  he  was  drinking  tea.)  "  You  see," 
he  explained,  "  you  would  come  on  the  lines  of  com- 
munication of  the  Crown  Prince's  army.  It  seems  that 
in  that  region  especially  a  great  deal  of  American  am- 
munition, which,  by  the  way,  is  very  much  more  effective 
than  the  French  article,  has  been  used  by  the  French. 
Now  don't  you  see  that  if  it  becomes  known  that  you 
are  writing  for  American  papers  you  might  arouse  very 
strong  antagonism?  Of  course,  we  here,  and  the  offi- 
cers of  the  higher  command,  understand  that  America 
has  a  perfect  legal  (great  emphasis!)  right  to  supply 
ammunition  to  the  Allies,  but  the  common  soldier  does 
not  see  things  that  way.  Suppose  you  meet  some  of 
those  whose  friends  or  relations  have  been  killed  by 
American  bullets  and  American  shells  ?  Such  people  do 
not  think  when  their  passions  are  aroused  "  {xnde  Bel- 
gium), "  and  thus  harm  might  come  to  you.  That,  I 
believe,  is  one  of  the  main  reasons  for  not  letting  you 
go  to  Luxembourg." 

I  knew  better !  They  did  not  want  me  to  go  because 
I  knew  too  many  people  there.  A  few  weeks  later, 
when  I  saw  the  possibility  of  obtaining  a  pass  was  out 
of  the  question,  I  had  my  little  revenge. 

At  a  certain  rather  large  dinner  party,  one  man,  who 


THE  PRESS  IN  GERMANY  39 

knew  of  some  of  my  Luxembourg  connections,  leaned 
across  the  table  and  said :  "  Now  your  friends,  the 
Luxembourgers,  were  more  sensible  than  those  stupid, 
hot-headed  Belgians.  Look  at  all  the  money  Luxem- 
bourg is  making  these  days  !  " 

I  knew  better  than  that,  and,  what's  more,  I  knew 
that  he  did  too.  It  put  my  back  up,  and  although  it 
was  most  undiplomatic,  I  could  not  resist  giving  him  a 
piece  of  true  information  in  exchange  for  his  false  one. 

"  H'm,  yes,"  I  replied.  "  I  suppose  it  was,  as  you 
say,  '  sensible.'  You  see,  our  geographical  position  is 
somewhat  unfortunate.  We  have  no  pass  of  Ther- 
mopylsB." 

"  Pass  of  Therm opyljE.''  "  everybody  muttered,  look- 
ing puzzled.     I  was  asked  to  explain. 

"  Oh,  it's  quite  simple ! "  I  continued.  "  You  see 
we,  too,  have  an  army  one  thousand  strong,  and 
we  could  also,  I  have  no  doubt,  find  a  Leonidas  amongst 
them ;  but,  as  I  have  said  —  we  lack  the  Pass." 

Tableau!     A  quick  change  of  subject. 

The  Press  department  of  the  General  Staff  keeps  in 
close  touch  with  the  German  newspapers.  In  a  large 
hall  of  the  Reichstag  building  the  chiefs,  always  assisted 
by  both  militarj^  and  naval  officers,  on  leave  from  active 
service,  meet  the  various  editors,  sub-editors  and  cor- 
respondents of  most  of  the  German  newspapers.  These 
assemblies  take  place  three  times  a  week,  and  their 
object  is  to  bring  the  work  of  the  Army  and  Navy  in 
closest  contact  with  the  men  that  are  largely  respon- 
sible for  public  opinion.  Apparently  all  the  cards  are 
laid  on  the  table,  but  it  is  pointed  out  to  the  repre- 
sentatives of  the  Press  that  certain  details  are  of  a 
confidential  nature,  and  would  only  serve  the  enemy  if 
published.     Needless  to  say,  that  only  the  most  plausi- 


40  BEHIND  THE  GERMAN  VEIL 

ble,  the  most  tip-top  fakers  are  employed  at  these  tri- 
weekly meetings.  Foreign  correspondents  are  rigor^ 
ously  excluded  from  these  family  gatherings,  but  I  man- 
aged to  borrow  the  pass  of  one  of  the  correspondents 
of  a  provincial  Bavarian  paper,  and  attended  one  meet- 
ing incognito.  I  will  admit  quite  frankly  that  I  was 
on  pins  and  needles  at  first,  but  by  keeping  discreetly 
in  the  background  I  remained  undiscovered.  I  think 
about  two  hundred  pressmen  must  have  been  present. 

It  was  one  of  the  first  meetings  after  the  Doggerbank 
battle,  in  which  the  Bliicher  was  sunk.  I  am  not  sur- 
prised that  the  German  papers  made  so  much  of  the 
sinking  of  the  Tiger.  The  wonderful,  clear,  "  frank  " 
and  plausible  way  in  which  a  naval  officer,  present  at 
the  battle  described  it  was  really  extraordinary.  He 
himself  had  seen  the  Tiger  go  down. 

He  gave  a  most  lucid  and  apparently  convincing 
description  of  the  battle.  With  sketches,  diagrams 
and  photographs  he  illustrated  the  progress  of  the  fight, 
and  he  made  much  of  the  circumstance  that  it  was 
Admiral  Beatty  who  broke  off  the  engagement.  Need- 
less to  say,  he  did  not  mention  that  their  ships,  when 
in  retreat,  had  sown  mines  indiscriminately  in  their 
wake.  Neither  did  he  mention  that  the  Lion  and  the 
Tiger  were  far  ahead  of  the  squadron.  He  made  much 
of  the  question  of  armament ;  he  showed  that  the  Seyd- 
litz  and  the  Moltke  carried  only  ten  28  cm.  (11  inch) 
guns  each,  while  the  Derfflinger  was  armed  with  eight 
30  cm.  (12  inch)  guns.  Opposed  to  them  they  had 
three  battle  cruisers,  each  armed  with  eight  34<  cm. 
(13^2  inch)  guns,  and  two  battle  cruisers  armed  with 
eight  30  cm.  (12  inch)  guns.  I  can  still  see  him  writing 
down  the  figures  on  the  big  black-board  in  the  following 
order : 


THE  PRESS  IN  GERMANY  41 

Wir  (we). 

20  St.i      28  cm.2 

8  St.        30  cm. 


28  58 

Engldnder. 
24*  St.       34  cm. 
16  St.        30  cm. 

40  64 

Thus  he  Impressed  on  his  audience  by  a  simple  sum  in 
arithmetic  the  wonderful  performance  of  the  German 
gunners  in  not  only  holding  their  own  against  such 
numerical  superiority,  but  even  having  succeeded  in 
sinking  a  ship  of  the  Tiger  class.  This  proved  conclu- 
sively that  in  a  sea  fight  no  more  than  in  a  land  battle 
mere  numbers  are  decisive.  What  about  the  Blucher? 
Oh,  the  poor  old  Blucher  did  not  count ;  she  carried 
guns  of  but  21  cm.  (about  8  inch),  and  her  speed  was 
barely  twenty-four  knots.  Nevertheless,  she  gave  a 
splendid  account  of  herself,  and  in  her  last  moments 
took  two  enemy  destroyers  with  her  to  the  bottom.^  He 
also  explained  that  they  were  not  on  a  raiding  expedi- 
tion, but  merely  on  their  usual  round  of  patrolling  the 
North  Sea.  As  to  the  sinking  of  the  Tiger,  they  had 
the  sworn  evidence  of  the  various  officers  of  the  Moltke, 
Derfflinger  and  Seydlitz,  and  of  the  commander  and 
personnel  of  the  Zeppelin  that  took  part  in  the  battle. 

I  came  away  from  that  meeting  with  my  brain  all 

1  St.  =  Stuck  =  Piece  =  Guns. 

2  Cm.  =  Centimetre  =  Approx.   J-inch. 

3  No  British  destroyers  were  sunk  in  the  Doggerbank  Battle. 


42  BEHIND  THE  GERMAN  VEIL 

awhirl.  I  did  not  know  what  to  think.  If  that  naval 
officer,  with  his  diagrams,  sketches,  photographs,  etc., 
was  lying  —  well,  I'm  hanged  if  I  would  ever  believe  any 
German  statement  again,  even  if  given  on  oath,  or  in 
extremis.     Such  duplicity  seemed  impossible. 

Now  if  that  meeting  had  such  an  effect  upofi  me,  what 
would  be  the  state  of  mind  of  a  German  newspaper  man? 
Why,  ninety-nine  out  of  every  hundred,  if  not  the  whole 
hundred,  come  away  from  those  meetings  time  after 
time,  solidly  convinced  that  the  General  Staff  has  told 
them  all  there  is  to  tell;  in  fact,  they  begin  to  feel  that 
they  are  semi-official  members  of  the  great  brain  of  the 
German  war  machine.  In  that  spirit  they  sit  down  and 
write  their  leading  articles,  and  the  German  reader  gets 
the  benefit  of  it.  In  his  well-ordered  mind  he  is  satis- 
fied that  the  authorities  are,  in  very  truth,  telling  him  all 
that  can  safely  be  made  known  without  prejudice  to  the 
interests  of  the  Fatherland. 

The  authorities  are  fully  aware  of  his  state  of  mind. 
Of  course,  in  many  instances  German  readers  do  get  the 
truth;  but  what  of  the  saying:  "  Half  a  truth  is  worse 
than  a  lie  "  ? 

I  had  a  long  and  very  pleasant  talk  one  evening, 
during  the  latter  part  of  March,  with  General  Count  von 
Schlieffen,  Commander  of  the  20th  Army  Corps,  at  his 
headquarters  in  Allenstein.  We  were  talking  about 
journalism,  comparing  German  and  American  methods. 
"  Wherein  lies  the  main  difference?  "  the  General  asked 
me  ;  adding :  "  I  can  see  how  great  it  is,  but  I  am  unable 
exactly  to  define  it." 

I  had  gone  to  Allenstein  without  the  knowledge  of  the 
General  Staff  in  Berlin,  without  any  pass  and  without 
permission,  so  I  thought  I  could  make  the  point  clear 
to  my  host  by  demonstration : 


THE  PRESS  IN  GERMANY 


4S 


"  One  great  difference  lies  in  the  manner  of  collecting 
the  news,"  I  said.  "A  German  journalist  'thinks* 
that  he  writes  what  he  sees ;  but,  in  reality,  he  only 
writes  what  the  authorities  want  him  to  see.  An 
American  journalist  writes  as  he  sees  things.  Again, 
a  German  journalist  will  wait  till  he  is  invited  to  come 
and  investigate,  while  an  American  will  go  first,  and  be 
invited,  perhaps,  later.  You  see,"  I  added,  smiling, 
"  if  I  had  been  schooled  in  the  German  system  I  would 
not  have  the  pleasure  of  this  evening  with  you,  but  I 
would  be  sitting  in  Berlin  waiting  for  another  month  or 
two  for  my  passes." 

"  Yes,"  he  quickly  retorted,  "  and  I  would  not  have 
the  painful  duty  of  sending  you  back  at  once  to  Berlin." 

The  dear  old  General  did  send  me  back  —  i.e.,  he  told 
me  to  go  back,  but  he  must  have  found  out  by  now 
another  little  difference  between  the  German  and  Amer- 
ican systems ! 

To  show  the  world  whom  Germany  is  fighting  the 
following  list  has  been  drawn  up : 


Montenegrins 

Gonds 

Rajputs 

Russians 

Senegalese 

Sikhs 

Servians 

Belgians 

Australians 

Turcomans 

Fijis 

Kyberi 

Annamites 

Welshmen 

Tartars 

English 

Zulus 

Usbegs 

French 

Canadians 

Kalmucks 

Scotch 

Irish 

Kerghis 

Japanese 

Portuguese 

Baluchi/ 

Cossacks 

Italians 

Burmese 

Rumanians 

Basutos 

Yakuts 

Together  with  the  above  list  is  usually  sent  out 


44  BEHIND  THE  GERMAN  VEIL 

poster  entitled,  "  Brothers  of  Culture  in  our  Prison 
Camps." 

During  Casement's  activities  in  Berlin,  the  Press  De- 
partment (Erzberger)  distributed  weekly  diatribes 
written  by  Casement  and  his  fellow-renegade  Stanliope, 
to  American  correspondents. 


CHAPTER  VII 

BERLIN    IMPRESSIONS 

UNLESS  you  are  a  deep-dyed  Anglo  maniac,  one 
who  has  become  used  to  the  "  tyrannies  of  the 
British  Navy,"  and  other  English  ways  of  doing  things, 
to  venture  into  Germany  these  days  is  tempting  Provi- 
dence. You  run  grave  peril  of  having  your  immortal 
soul,  your  heart  and  your  mind  converted  to  German 
ideas  of  Militarism  and  "  Kultur." 

I  have  seen  the  effect  of  the  German  atmosphere  on 
several  of  my  colleagues  within  less  than  two  weeks. 
It  takes  a  strong-minded  pro-Ally  to  stand  up  against 
a  continuous  procession  of  *'  documentary  proofs,"  of 
"  who  started  the  war  ? "  of  arguments,  lectures, 
speeches  and  literature.  Weeks  and  days  and  hours, 
permeated  with  the  "  Gott  mit  uns,  wir  mussen  siegen  " 
spirit  and  conversation ! 

What  I  have  not  heard  about  the  misdeeds,  committed 
for  the  last  three  hundred  years,  of  "  that  little  Robber's 
Island,  off  the  Coast  of  Europe,  populated  by  a  nation 
of  pedlars,  whose  only  code  of  honour  is  the  £  s.  d. 
sign,"  would  be  enough  to  cause  any  one  to  blush  for 
ever  having  been  associated  with  such  a  place  and  such 
a  nation ;  nay,  it  would  even  make  a  perfectly  good 
Englishman  swear  eternal  vengeance  at  the  absent- 
minded  stork  that  dropped  him  on  the  wrong  side  of  the 
Channel. 

At  the  ofBce  of  the  American  Consul-General  in 
Munich,  on  the  first  day  of  my  arrival  in  Germany,  I 
met   an  Englishwoman,   a   Miss  Welch,   a   teacher   of 

English  in  some  of  the  schools.     Now,  I  thought,  she 

45 


46  BEHIND  THE  GERMAN  VEIL 

will  no  doubt  be  able  to  give  me  some  very  useful  facts ; 
she  will  tell  me  where  to  look  for  the  weak  spots  in  this 
great  German  machine.  So  when  she  left  I  accom- 
panied her,  and  the  moment  we  were  alone  I  said: 
"  Now,  Miss  Welch,  you  can  talk  quite  frankly  to  me. 
Tell  me  something  about  the  real  conditions  here." 
She  stared  at  me  with  undisguised  surprise.  "  Why," 
she  exclaimed,  "what  do  you  mean.''  Things  are  ex- 
actly as  you  see  them.  I  am  sure  Germany  is  going 
to  win ;  nobody  can  beat  this  nation.  I  have  nothing 
to  complain  of.  I  must  report  myself  twice  a  day  to 
the  police,  but  otherwise  I  go  on  the  same  as  before 
the  war.  I  have  no  trouble  at  all,  and  the  people  are 
in  no  way  unkind  to  me.  Do  you  know,"  she  added, 
with  admiration  and  respect  in  her  voice,  "  that  in 
all  these  months  I  have  never  seen  a  drunken  soldier  in 
the  streets  or  anywhere  else  ?  " 

I  do  not  believe  that  there  is  one  foreign  consul  in  a 
hundred  in  Germany  to-day  who  is  not  absolutely, 
frankly  and  openly  pro-German.  "  People  don't  know 
what  this  country  is,  what  it  can  do,"  said  the  Ameri- 
can Consul-General  in  Munich,  Mr.  St.  John  GafFney, 
to  me.  "  Germany  cannot  be  destroyed  because  it  is 
the  most  perfectly  ruled  country  in  the  world,  and  the 
people  are  absolutely  united." 

Professor  Fullerton,  an  American  Exchange  Pro- 
fessor of  Pennsylvania  University,  whom  I  met  in 
Munich  was  strongly  pro-German.  In  the  most  sin- 
cere, the  most  convincing  manner,  he  assured  me: 
"  The  Germans  are  a  peace-loving  people.  There  is  no 
element  in  America's  population  that  is  more  orderly, 
industrious  and  law-abiding  than  the  German  element. 
The  German  at  home  has  the  same  characteristics. 
The  land  is  an  orderly  land,  and  the  population  is 
enlightened,   disciplined  and   educated   to   respect   the 


BERLIN  IMPRESSIONS  47 

law.  The  rights  of  even  the  humblest  are  jealously 
guarded.  The  courts  are  just.  The  success  of  the 
Germans  is  obtained  as  the  result  of  careful  prepara- 
tion and  unremitting  industry.  No  one  who  lives  among 
them,  and  learns  to  know  them,  can  feel  that  he  has 
to  do  with  an  aggressive  and  predatory  people." 

Similar  eulogies  were  launched  at  me  day  after  day 
by  educated  neutral  people.  When  even  foreigners  feel 
so  strongly  about  Germany,  it  seems  to  me  that  the 
chances  of  a  revolution  against  the  present  regime  are 
very  remote,  not  to  say  non-existent. 

The  whole  nation  is  so  bound  up  with  the  one  institu- 
tion for  which  they  work  and  live  and  breathe  —  the 
Army  —  whatever  sacrifices,  whatever  changes  are  de- 
manded they  will  be  carried  out  as  naturally  and  as 
systematically  as  the  changing  of  a  gear  in  a  motor- 
car. I  almost  feel  inclined  to  say  that  war  is  a  natural 
state  to  them,  peace  merel}^  a  holiday.  There  are  few 
Germans,  I  believe,  who  do  not  look  upon  the  call  to 
arms  as  a  natural  occurrence  that  may  come  any  day. 
I  forget  who  it  was  that  said  or  wrote:  "The  Army 
is  not  for  German}^,  Germany  is  for  the  Arm3\"  That 
hits  the  nail  on  the  head.  One  sees  the  proof  of  it 
to-day.  Confidence  in  the  strength  of  their  army  and 
its  leaders  is  absolute,  and  their  reverence  for  the 
Kaiser  is  nothing  less  than  fanatical.  I  was  present  at 
a  reception  the  Kaiser  got  on  his  return  to  Berlin  from 
a  visit  to  the  Eastern  front.  I  was  near  the  Fried- 
richstrasse  Station.  Never,  except  perhaps  at  Ameri- 
can baseball  and  football  matches,  have  I  seen  such 
absolutely  frenzied  crowds  as  I  found  that  morning. 
The  cheering  seemed  to  make  the  very  buildings  shake. 
From  house  to  house,  from  mouth  to  mouth,  rang  the 
*'  Hochs !  "     Men  threw  their  hats  up  in  the  air,  waved 


48  BEHIND  THE  GERMAN  VEIL 

their  sticks  or  umbrellas ;  women  fluttered  their  hand- 
kerchiefs, and  many  of  them,  who  had  babies,  held  them 
up  that  they,  too,  might  get  a  glimpse  of  their  Sover- 
eign. Every  seat  at  the  windows  and  on  the  roofs  was 
occupied.  The  Kaiser,  dressed  in  the  simple  grey  field 
uniform,  with  the  black  and  white  ribbon  of  the  Iron 
Cross  in  one  of  his  buttonholes,  entered  his  motor-car 
with  a  quick  elastic  step,  at  the  same  time  bowing  to  left 
and  right.  His  helmet,  like  that  of  every  soldier  and 
officer,  was  covered  with  the  grey  material  which  has 
become  the  fashionable  colour  in  Germany. 

As  I  have  already  tried  to  describe  in  previous  chap- 
ters, the  German,  more  especially  the  Prussian,  is  a 
hard  psychological  nut  to  crack.  When  you  are  alone 
with  him,  he  is  by  no  means  aggressive ;  in  fact,  it  is 
rather  the  other  way  about ;  he  seems  simple  and  truth- 
ful, as  far  as  his  knowledge  of  truth  goes.  But  lo! 
the  moment  he  forms  part  of  an  organisation,  however 
small,  be  it  only  a  gathering  of  four  or  five  compatriots, 
his  whole  demeanour,  his  entire  character  changes. 
Then  it  is :  "  Deutschland,  Deutschland  iiber  Alles !  " 
Collectively  they  are  all,  men,  women  and  children, 
certain  of  victory.  Individually,  especially  amongst 
the  educated  classes,  if  you  have  convinced  them  that 
what  our  American  friends  call  "  hot  air  "  is  unac- 
ceptable currency,  the  German  will  admit  that  every- 
thing has  not  gone  according  to  plan  and  programme ; 
that  perhaps  the  landing  of  a  few  army  corps  in  Eng- 
land might,  owing  to  unforeseen  difficulties,  have  to  be 
temporarily  postponed ;  and  that  the  Berlin  police  force, 
which  was  to  have  been  sent  to  France  to  "  arrest  the 
British  Army,"  might  find  the  job  a  little  too  big  for 
them.  "  But,"  so  he  will  invariably  add,  no  doubt  for 
his  own  encouragement  as  much  as  anything  else,  "  they 


BERLIN  IMPRESSIONS  49 

can  never  throw  us  out  of  Belgium  and  Poland."  And, 
as  an  afterthought:  "England?  With  the  swift  de- 
velopment of  air-craft  that  country  is  becoming  less 
and  less  an  island." 

The  Russian  danger  is  considered  to  be  a  thing  of  the 
past.  According  to  some  English  writers  on  military 
subjects,  Germany  was  more  afraid  of  her  Eastern  than 
her  Western  front.  That  is  a  very  erroneous  impres- 
sion. If  the  exact  figures  are  ever  known,  it  will  be 
proved  that  Germany  had  a  great  many  less  troops  on 
the  Eastern  front  than  is  generally  supposed.  I  hap- 
pen to  know  that,  in  order  to  mislead  the  Allies,  small 
units  of  this  or  that  army  corps  were  sent  to  the  East 
to  convey  the  impression  that  the  whole  of  the  corps 
in  question  had  been  moved,  while  in  reality  the  greater 
part  remained  in  the  West. 

Hindenburg  is,  of  course,  the  most  popular  German 
hero  of  the  day.  He  is  hailed  as  East  Prussia's,  and 
now  Germany's,  deliverer.  Confidence  in  him,  and  in 
his  ability  and  genius  to  cope  fully  with  the  Russians 
is  absolutely  unshakable  and  supreme.  Already  last 
year  it  was  believed  in  Germany  that  there  was  no  longer 
any  danger  of  a  real  Russian  offensive.  One  of  the 
greatest  disappointments  the  Germans  have  suffered, 
next  to  the  failure  to  take  Paris,  is  that  the  Russians 
have  held  out  instead  of  making  a  separate  peace. 
Amongst  the  best-informed  circles  in  Berlin,  it  was 
confidently  expected  that  Russia  would  give  in  before 
the  end  of  1915. 

"  And  then  full  steam  ahead  to  the  West,"  was  sig- 
nificantly added.  All  eyes  have  been  centred  on  the 
West  ever  since  the  Battle  of  the  Marne.  The  Ger- 
mans know  that  it  is  there  the  decision  of  this  great 
struggle  will  be  reached.     "  The  hated  English  must 


60  BEHIND  THE  GERMAN  VEIL 

be  kept  in  check  at  all  costs,"  is  what  you  hear  daily. 
There  is  not  a  higher  officer  who,  if  he  is  honest  — 
and  I  met  several  who  were  —  will  not  admit  that  Ger- 
many has  greatly  under-rated  the  strength  and  effi- 
ciency of  the  British  Army.  But  invariably  they 
add  that  they  have  over-rated  the  strength  of  the  Brit- 
ish Navy. 


CHAPTER  VIII 

BERLIN    IMPRESSIONS    ( CONTINUED) 

THE  quickest  way  to  ingratiate  yourself  with  Ger- 
mans these  days  is  to  tell  hair-raising  tales  about 
conditions  in  London.  If  you  have  not  been  there 
since  the  war  began  (or  perhaps  at  any  other  time, 
as  was  the  case  with  several  foreign  journalists  who 
had  much  to  say  on  London  affairs),  so  much  the  bet- 
ter, because  then  your  flights  of  fancy  will  be  untram- 
melled by  mere  considerations  of  facts.  Tell  them,  for 
instance,  about  the  airship  panic !  "  Zeppelins,"  you 
explain,  "  why,  they  have  become  a  regular  bogey  in 
England !  Such  scares  as  Dick  Turpin,  Lloyd  George, 
the  Black  Prince,  etc.,  are  all  out  of  date  now.  When 
children  are  getting  too  noisy,  mother  just  says: 
'  Zepps ! '  and  all  is  quiet.  The  very  dogs  in  the  streets, 
which,  so  you  explain,  are  almost  the  only  living  things 
to  be  seen  at  night,  at  the  mere  noise  of  a  motor-car 
engine,  run  howling  to  cover,  with  their  tails  between 
their  legs."  The  halo  of  grim  satisfaction  which 
spreads  over  the  German  visage  encourages  you  to  still 
higher  flights. 

"  After  nightfall,"  you  continue,  "  only  the  most 
vitally  important  business  can  induce  a  Londoner  to 
leave  his  cellar.  You  are  surprised.''  Why,  did  you 
not  know,  then,  that  the  people  in  London  do  not  live 
in  their  houses  any  more.''  The  excavation  companies 
of  England  are  the  only  ones  that  pay  any  dividends 
nowadays.  London  has  reverted  to  prehistoric  times ; 
it  is  a  city  of  cave-dwellers." 

No  German  home  is  complete  without  a  number  of 

51 


52  BEHIND  THE  GERMAN  VEIL 

caricatures  of  Britain.  One  of  the  most  popular  is 
called  "  Family  Life  in  England."  It  represents  a 
party  of  women,  and  about  sixteen  children  of  various 
ages  from  two  upwards,  seated  round  the  table,  in  the 
middle  of  which  is  a  large  heap  of  rifle  bullets.  The 
family,  armed  with  knives,  files,  scissors,  and  all  sorts 
of  odd  kitchen  utensils,  are  labouring  away  at  the 
bullets,  transforming  them  into  dum-dums.  Under- 
neath it  you  may  read :  "  In  England,  too,  the  women 
at  home  are  making  '  love  gifts  '  for  their  dear  ones  in 
the  field."  The  professor  whom  you  are  visiting  notes 
the  interest  you  show  in  the  drawing.  "  Clever,  isn't 
it.''"  he  inquires  proudly.  "Very  clever,  very  clever, 
indeed !  "  you  reply  with  alacrity,  but  with  a  certain 
thoughtfulness  in  your  voice.  "  It  is  so  very  realistic," 
you  continue.  "  When  I  was  last  in  London  (don't 
forget  to  mention  this  with  suitable  apologies  and  re- 
grets), I  witnessed  many  similar  scenes." 

To  show  how  the  authorities  and  the  Press  keep  the 
fires  of  "  Gott  strafe  England !  "  burning,  I  have  photo- 
graphed a  few  of  the  posters  and  illustrations  which 
one  may  see  in  any  German  book-store,  at  newspaper 
agents,  hotels,  and  in  many  private  houses.  The  most 
libellous  among  them  are  those  that  refer  to  the  treat- 
ment of  German  prisoners  in  England.  An  illustration 
shows,  in  succession,  the  prisoners'  "  liberty  of  move- 
ment within  a  certain  circle  " ;  "  well-ventilated  and 
light  quarters  " ;  "  the  food  " ;  "  they  are  often  per- 
mitted to  bathe  " ;  "  false  war  news  " ;  and,  the  most 
scurrilous  of  all,  "  the  slightly  wounded  receive  careful 
medical  treatment." 

Another  picture  shows  German  prisoners  on  the 
roofs  of  prominent  buildings  in  London.  Under  the 
illustration    it    reads :     "  In    order    to    protect    public 


BERLIN  IMPRESSIONS  53 

buildings   from  Zeppelin  bombs,   the   roofs  have  been 
made  into  prisoners'  camps." 

I  shall  never  forget  my  arrival  at  the  Hotel  Adlon. 
It  was  after  dinner,  and  the  first  thing  I  noticed  in  the 
palm  court  was  a  group  of  eight  officers  in  khaki.  I 
can  assure  you  it  gave  me  a  surprise,  but  I  soon  re- 
covered. They  were  American  military  attaches,  just 
about  to  leave  for  the  West.  I  have  heard  many  funn}' 
stories  about  the  curious  incidents  which  took  place  in 
various  parts  of  Belgium  when  those  American  officers 
were  being  shown  round.  The  Belgians,  of  course,  took 
them  for  British  officers,  and,  seeing  them  walk  and 
ride  about  free,  and  being  treated  with  respect  by  the 
Germans,  they  naturally  concluded  that  they  were  the 
advance  guard  of  the  "  Great  Push."  Several  times 
they  were  surrounded  by  a  Belgian  crowd  shouting: 
"  Vive  I'Angleterre !  "  much  to  their  embarrassment,  of 
course.  At  Louvain  a  troop  of  street  urchins,  headed 
by  a  tall  lanky  fellow,  representing  the  Crown  Prince, 
walked  up  to  the  American  officers'  car,  and,  with  mock 
ceremony,  handed  over  his  wooden  sword  to  them.  I 
heard  that  the  German  authorities  considerably  cur- 
tailed the  Belgian  trip  of  those  American  officers.  The 
situation  became  too  annoying  and  embarrassing. 

The  posters  displayed  in  the  various  hotels  and  other 
public  places  in  Berlin  were  almost  as  numerous  as  the 
recruiting  appeals  in  London.  Some  of  the  most  con- 
spicuous were  large  yellow  announcements  about  gold, 
urging  everybody  not  to  keep  it  in  his  possession,  but 
to  take  it  to  the  Reichsbank.  It  impressed  upon  you 
that  by  holding  it  back  3^ou  were  neglecting  your  duty 
to  the  Fatherland,  and  indirectly  helping  the  enemy. 

An  appeal  signed  by  General  von  Wachs,  Military 


64  BEHIND  THE  GERMAN  VEIL 

Commandant  of  the  Province  of  Brandenburg,  was 
quite  a  little  gem.  It  was  directed  at  manufacturers 
and  other  large  employers  of  labour  : 

"  You  cannot  do  without  your  employes  ? "  so  it 
ran.  "  But  what  if  the  enemy  should  invade  our 
Fatherland.'^  Then  you  would  be  the  very  first  to  take 
a  forced  holiday  and  close  down  your  works."  The 
General  wanted  all  able-bodied  men  between  the  ages 
of  sixteen  and  fifty,  who  were  untrained,  to  come  and 
be  instructed  in  the  gentle  art  of  defending  their  coun- 
try. "  Do  not  acquiesce  in  words  but  in  deeds.  Do  not 
say  '  Yes  —  but,'  say  '  Yes  —  sure  ! '  " 

Maps  were  displayed  everywhere.  I  cannot  remem- 
ber having  been  in  any  shop,  office  or  private  house, 
either  in  Berlin  or  in  the  provinces,  where  at  least  one 
large  war  map,  if  not  several,  was  not  displayed.  I 
did  not  fail  to  notice  that  the  maps,  plans  and  sketches 
published  by  English  newspapers  were  very  popular. 
One  of  the  first  things  that  struck  me  was  that  most  of 
the  London  and  Paris  dailies  were  for  sale  in  all  first- 
class  hotels  in  the  larger  German  cities  I  visited. 

It  was  quite  amusing  to  hear  an  elderly,  red-faced 
and  bespectacled  German,  surrounded  by  his  family,  and 
enjoying  his  evening  quart  of  beer,  murdering  the 
President's  French.  He  read  aloud  from  the  Matin  or 
the  Figaro,  and  translated  it  with  a  running  fire  of  vitu- 
perative expletives.  The  London  Times  is  the  most 
popular  of  all  foreign  papers.  The  price  in  Berlin 
was  a  shilling,  but  after  Germany  started  the  submarine 
blockade  it  rose  to  one-and-six,  "  owing  to  the  great 
difficulty  of  transport  between  England  and  Holland." 
I  often  received  London  papers  the  day  after  publica- 
tion, but  as  a  rule  it  took  about  two  days. 

The  Adlon  Hotel  lounge  might  safely  be  called  one  of 


BERLIN  IMPRESSIONS  55 

the  most  interesting  spots  in  all  the  belligerent  coun- 
tries. It  was  here  that  men  and  women  of  all  national- 
ities, creeds,  professions  and  classes  foregathered. 
There  were  the  hunters  and  the  hunted ;  the  active  and 
the  idle;  journalists  and  journeymen;  there  were  types 
that  bore  great  resemblance  to  the  roast-beef  cheeks  of 
merry  England ;  there  were  Turks  in  their  fez,  slim 
Chinamen  and  robust  Americans.  Officers  of  all  ranks 
and  branches  in  their  uniforms,  accompanied  by  ladies, 
near-ladies  and  "  unfortunate  "  ladies.  All  had  their 
serious  aims,  and  none  trusted  the  other. 

One  of  the  tables  close  to  the  American  bar,  otherwise 
dubbed  "  American  Headquarters,"  was  permanently 
reserved  for  "  Herr  Graf  von  Hessenstein,"  a  nephew 
of  the  late  General  Moltke.  We  called  him  "  Whisper- 
ing Charlie  "  for  short,  because  he  alwa3's  had  some- 
thing "  confidential  "  to  tell  you,  to  whet  your  appetite 
for  more.  The  "  appetizer "  was  gratis,  but  if  you 
wanted  more  you  had  to  pay  for  it.  "  Whispering 
Charlie  "  was  a  source  of  great  amusement  to  me.  His 
transactions  stirred  up  a  very  nice  little  hornets'-nest 
between  the  General  Staff  and  the  Berlin  Foreign  Office. 
It  appeared,  and  was  conclusively  proved,  that  "  Whis- 
pering Charlie  "  was  a  dealer  in  special  privileges.  If 
a  journalist  felt  neglected  Charlie  was  the  doctor  — 
for  a  consideration,  of  course.  An  American  cinema 
operator,  who  suddenly  grew  ambitious  to  blossom  into 
a  journalist,  approached  Charlie  in  the  proper  manner, 
and  lo !  five  days  later  American  papers  published  an 
"  interview  "  by  him  with  General  Moltke.  It  is,  of 
course,  a  mere  matter  of  detail  that  the  "  interview  " 
was  a  typewritten  affair,  presented  to  him  by  von 
Moltke  —  who  knew  as  much  English  as  Mr.  Cinema 
man  knew  German,  i.e.,  nil  —  with  a  "  How  do  you  do  " 
and  "  Good-bye  "  thrown  in.     It  proved  what  Charlie 


56  BEHIND  THE  GERMAN  VEIL 

could  do.  For  an  additional  £50,  plus  a  commission 
on  the  sale  of  a  motor-car,  bouglit  by  the  Cinema  man 
from  Captain  von  Brauwitz,  of  the  Railroad  Depart- 
ment of  the  Berlin  General  Staff,  Charlie  furnished  the 
American  with  a  pass  for  a  two  weeks'  visit  to  the 
Eastern  front,  including  a  hundred  feet  of  film,  which 
he  was  able  to  take  of  General  Hindenburg  and  his 
Staff.  He  also  filmed  the  Kaiser's  sister,  Prince  von 
Billow,  and  various  other  notabilities  —  cheap  at  the 
price ! 

Whispering  Charlie  offered  this  same  man,  in  my 
presence,  to  persuade  the  Kaiser  himself  to  pose  for  his 
cinematograph,  for  the  purely  nominal  sum  of  2,000 
marks  (£100).  He  explained  that  one  of  the  Kaiser's 
personal  A.D.C.'s  was  a  friend  and  relative  of  his,  who, 
"  for  the  sake  of  America's  friendship,"  would  be  able 
to  manage  it.  To  me  he  offered,  upon  payment  of  a 
similar  sum  (half  in  advance,  the  other  half  on  receipt 
of  the  necessary  permits),  a  two  weeks'  trip  along  the 
Western  battle-front.  I  agreed  to  this  arrangement 
purely  with  the  object  of  showing  the  Berlin  authorities 
that  "  money  talked  "  even  in  the  German  organisation. 
I  paid  the  preliminary  1,000  marks  (£50),  and  awaited 
proceedings.  Alas !  it  was  once  more  demonstrated  that 
a  secret  shared  by  two  is  no  secret  at  all.  My  Ameri- 
can cinema  man,  during  one  of  his  many  very  hilarious 
dinners  —  German  champagne  was  a  bit  too  strong  for 
him  —  let  the  cat  out  of  the  bag  to  Professor  Stein, 
associate  editor  of  the  VossiscJie  Zeitung.  Much  per- 
turbed. Stein  insisted  on  further  facts  and  details. 
Seeing  that  my  little  plan  was  spoiled,  there  was  nothing 
else  to  do  but  to  expose  the  whole  system  there  and 
then.  I  reported  the  matter  to  the  Foreign  Office,  who 
at  first  seemed  rather  to  enjoy  the  joke. 

You  see,  Foreign  OflBce  and  General  Staff  are  not  on 


No  Admission  to  Potsdam 


BERLIN  IMPRESSIONS  57 

the  best  of  terms  with  one  another.  On  investigation, 
however,  they  found  out  that  an  official  from  the  Foreign 
Office  was  implicated  in  this  journalistic  clearing-house, 
so  they  tried  to  pigeon-hole  the  matter  by  returning 
to  me  the  1,000  marks  I  had  paid.  But  I  thought 
that  it  would  interest  the  Press  Department  of  the 
General  Staff.  I  went  there  and  for  the  second  time 
exploded  the  bomb.  "  Impossible !  absolutely  impos- 
sible ! "  I  was  assured,  until  I  produced  one  or  two 
receipts  signed  by  Count  von  Hessenstein  for  various 
sums  received  from  the  cinema  man.  Then  they  began 
to  look  serious  and  proceeded  to  take  action. 

The  outcome  of  the  affair  was  that  the  cinema  man 
was  first  urged  to  withdraw,  or,  rather,  repudiate  all  his 
statements  about  the  help  received  from  Count  Hessen- 
stein. If  he  would  do  that,  he  would  be  given  a  universal 
pass  to  travel  anywhere  in  Germany  and  take  all  the 
photographs  and  cinema  pictures  he  liked.  I  happen 
to  know  that  he  felt  much  inclined  to  accept  such  a 
generous  offer,  but  the  difficulty  was  that  I  was  in  pos- 
session of  all  his  receipts  for  money  paid  to  Hessen- 
stein. The  upshot  was  that  his  filming  career  was  cut 
short,  and  that  he  withdrew  to  the  neutral  territorj^  of 
Holland.  It  had  been  a  lucky  day  for  me  when  I  got 
hold  of  those  receipts,  because  but  for  these  I  would 
have  had  no  evidence  at  all  after  the  American  had 
left  the  country.  I  made  several  affidavits,  and  Whis- 
pering Charlie  and  his  partner,  Dr.  Marx,  or  Marks, 
disappeared  for  the  time  being  from  the  Adlon  field  of 
operations. 

The  Adlon  Bar  ("American  Headquarters")  was  a 
most  lively  and  interesting  place  after  1  a.  m.  The 
writer  had  a  narrow  escape  of  being  "  Zabcrned  "  {i.e., 
cut  up  with  a  sabre,  like  the  lame  cobbler  of  Zabem 


68  BEHIND  THE  GERMAN  VEIL 

fame)  by  a  Prussian  officer,  who  had  looked  too  deep 
into  several  bottles.  I  was  talking  to  an  American, 
and,  of  course,  spoke  English.  The  officer,  when  he 
heard  us,  drew  his  sword,  and  running  towards  me 
shouted : 

"  Hier  wird  Deutsch  gesprochen  "  ("  German  must 
be  spoken  here");  adding  that  those  people  who  do 
not  know  German  have  no  business  to  be  in  Germany 
at  all.  He  was  quickly  disarmed  by  several  colleagues, 
who  winked  an  eye  at  us  and,  later,  came  to  offer  their 
abject  apologies. 

There  are  few  articles  for  sale  in  the  shops  that  are 
not  decorated  with  a  facsimile  iron  cross.  You  may 
buy  postcards  with  the  iron  cross  —  natural  size  —  on 
it  to  send  to  your  friend  at  the  front,  or  you  can  buy 
a  cigarette-case  with  a  miniature  cross  in  one  of  the 
comers.  There  are  pipes,  pocket-books,  mugs,  walking- 
sticks,  handkerchiefs,  brooches,  rings  —  nay,  I  even  saw 
a  pair  of  black  and  white  silk  garters  with  wee  iron 
crosses  in  the  centre  of  the  rosette.  It  is  a  bit  over- 
done and  does  not  tend  to  make  that  decoration  more 
exclusive.  I  heard  that  up  to  October  1915,  900,000 
iron  crosses  had  been  awarded. 

One  afternoon  while  sipping  my  tea  and  enjoying  the 
sights,  in  the  Adlon  Hotel  palm  court,  I  noticed  a  tall, 
good-looking  German  officer  in  cavalry  uniform.  I 
stared  at  him  and  he  stared  back  and  smiled.  He  came 
over  to  my  table.  "  I  am  not  surprised,"  he  said,  "  that 
you  are  somewhat  puzzled.  We  crossed  together  on 
the  S.S.  Rotterdam  last  year,  from  New  York  to 
Plymouth ! "  Then  of  course  I  remembered  at  once. 
I  had  noticed  him  the  first  evening  on  board,  during 
dinner,  and  recall  saying  to  ray  neighbour  at  table  that 


BERLIN  IMPRESSIONS  69 

there  would  be  small  chance  of  his  escape  on  account 
of  his  very  Teutonic  appearance,  if  we  should  be  held 
up  by  an  English  warship.  He  was  always  alone,  but 
one  day  he  confided  to  the  ship's  gossip  that  he  was 
a  Finn  and  on  his  way  to  join  the  Russian  Army.  It 
struck  none  of  us  at  the  time  —  nor  evidently  the  Brit- 
ish Colonel  who  examined  our  papers  at  Plymouth  — 
that  it  was  rather  a  strange  route  to  go  from  America 
to  Russia  via  Holland.  He  passed  the  eagle  eyes  of 
the  inquisitive  British  Colonel,  who  cross-examined 
every  one  of  us,  inquiring  into  our  antecedents,  whether 
we  had  any  German  relations ;  whether  we  intended 
going  to  Germany,  and  I  even  heard  the  dear  old  Colonel 
inquire  of  one  of  the  passengers  whether  he  "  spoke  " 
German !  But  our  would-be  Finn  merely  showed  his 
Finnish  papers  (belonging  to  liis  brother-in-law  in  New 
York).  He  did  not  speak  English  but  knew  French 
fluently.  He  passed  without  any  difficulties  whatso- 
ever. He  assured  me  that  during  those  twelve  days  on 
board  he  had  lived  through  many  anxious  waking  hours, 
and  that  it  was  an  immense  relief  when  the  good  ship 
finally  landed  him  safely  on  Dutch  soil. 

I  should  like  to  place  on  record  two  of  my  earliest  and 
most  frequent  impressions  gained  in  various  parts  of 
Germany : 

1.  It  was  freely  admitted  by  those  who  knew  that  the 

English  powers  of  ^organisation  had  been  grossly 
underrated. 

2.  That  the  war  would   probably  last   about   four 

years,  before  the  Allies  would  be  convinced  that 
"  Germany  cannot  be  destroyed." 

New  troops  proceeding  towards  the  front  rarely  know 
before  several  hours  after  starting,  whether  they  are 


eO  BEHIND  THE  GERMAN  VEIL 

going  to  the  Eastern  or  the  Western  theatre  of  war. 
Frequently  not  even  the  commanding  officers  know  until 
two  hours  after  departure,  when  they  are  permitted  to 
open  their  sealed  orders. 

Of  course  I  did  not  fail  to  meet  Berlin's  Lord  Mayor, 
an  elderly,  yery  simple,  homely  German  of  the  middle 
classes.  His  attitude  was,  as  he  expressed  it,  one  of 
"  quiet,  hopeful  confidence  in  the  ultimate  outcome." 
He  seemed  to  have  been  pleasantly  surprised  by  the  con- 
duct of  the  Berlin  Social  Democrats,  who,  in  pre-war 
days,  had  been  his  veritable  bete  noire.  "  They  have 
come  up  to  the  scratch  like  real  men  and  true  Germans," 
he  told  me.  "  When  we  were  somewhat  puzzled  about 
the  organisation  and  distribution  of  our  bread  tickets, 
the  Berlin  trades'-union  headquarters  placed  four  thou- 
sand of  their  members  voluntarily  at  our  disposal. 
They  worked  for  many  hours  a  day,  and  that,  mind  you, 
in  the  majority  of  cases,  after  their  own  working  hours. 
He  spoke  of  the  allowances  made  to  the  wives  and  chil- 
dren of  the  men  under  arms.  In  Berlin  this  came  to  10 
marks  ($2.40)  a  week  for  the  wives  and  3  marks  (72 
cents)  a  week  for  each  child.  The  yearly  pension  for 
the  widow  of  a  private  is  400  marks  ($97.20)  ;  of  a 
sergeant,  $121.50;  of  a  sergeant-major,  $145.80;  of  a 
lieutenant  or  captain,  $291.60;  of  a  major,  lieutenant- 
colonel  or  colonel,  $388.80 ;  and  of  a  general,  $486.00. 

The  children  of  N.CO.'s  and  privates,  fallen  in  the 
war,  receive  $38.88  per  annum  till  they  have  reached 
their  eighteenth  birthday.  For  the  children  of  fallen 
officers  the  allowance  varies  between  $48.60  and  $72.90 
per  annum.  Little  enough  to  buy  "  Kultur  "  with,  it 
would  seem! 

I  also  paid  several  visits,  by  urgent  invitation  1 
should  add,  to  the  "  Alexanderplatz,"  which  is  the  Ger- 


BERLIN  IMPRESSIONS  61 

man  synonym  for  Scotland  Yard.  At  the  Alexander- 
platz  stands  the  majestic  "  Pohzei  Prasidium."  From 
what  I  was  able  to  see  of  their  methods  there,  they  were 
somewhat  antiquated  compared  to  English  and  Ameri- 
can systems.  A  long  statement  of  mine,  for  instance 
(in  connection  with  "  Whispering  Charlie's  "  activities), 
was  taken  down  in  liONG  hand. 

Baroness  von  Below,  the  American  wife  of  the  well- 
known  General  of  that  name,  tells  an  interesting  story 
about  her  husband's  sudden  return  to  Berlin.  Madame 
von  Below  was  at  Aix-les-Bains.  On  the  25th  of  July, 
1914',  her  husband  joined  her  there.  He  was  at  the 
time  in  command  of  a  regiment  of  the  Guards  in  Berlin. 
On  the  30th,  his  second  in  command,  a  Colonel  Lyncker, 
well  known  through  his  various  military  publications, 
telegraphed  to  him,  but  instead  of  signing  his  name, 
wired:  "  Return  at  once. —  Augusta."  The  Baroness 
happened  to  open  that  telegram  herself.  She  assured 
me  that  her  husband  had  a  bad  quarter  of  an  hour 
arguing  that  "  Augusta  "  could  only  refer  to  the  name 
of  the  Kaiserin  Augusta  Victoria  Guards  Regiment, 
under  his  command.  He  escaped  from  Fn^ce  by  the 
last  train  crossing  the  frontier.  The  Baroness  pro- 
ceeded to  Italy,  where  she  waited  until  certain  funds, 
for  which  she  had  cabled  to  America,  had  arrived.  On 
her  way  to  Berlin  she  learned  at  Jena  that  Namur  had 
fallen,  but  little  realised  that  it  had  been  captured  by 
her  husband's  regiment. 

There  is  a  General  von  Below  and  also  a  General 
von  Biilow  in  Berlin.  Curiously  enough,  both  families 
not  only  live  In  the  same  street  and  in  the  same  mansion, 
but  on  the  same  floor  as  well. 

Always  an  interesting  spot  in  Berlin  is  the  corner  of 


62  BEHIND  THE  GERMAN  VEIL 

the  Wilhelms  and  Dorothean  Strasse,  where  the  Staff 
College  stands.  It  is  now  used  for  the  administration 
of  the  casualty  lists.  Every  new  issue  is  pasted  on  the 
walls  outside,  and  there  you  may  find  hundreds  of  peo- 
ple, too  poor  to  pay  the  nominal  sum  charged  for  the 
latest  copy  of  the  casualty  list,  poring  over  them, 
searching  for  the  name  of  son,  father,  husband,  lover,  or 
friend.  If  you  remain  there  a  little  while  you  will 
usually  witness  some  of  those  minor  human  tragedies 
which  go  to  make  up  this  stupendous  one,  when  some 
old  lady  or  man  is  led  out  of  the  crowd  murmuring  a 
beloved  name,  coupled  to  the  final,  hopeless  word: 
"Tot,  tot,  tot"  ("Dead,  dead,  dead"). 

Early  during  the  war  a  large  map-publishing  com- 
pany issued  what  was  called  a  "  World  War  Map."  It 
showed  the  five  continents,  and,  to  illustrate  Germany's 
naval  power,  all  the  various  stations  of  the  Fleet  were 
indicated  by  small  black  ships,  with  their  names  printed 
underneath.  Of  course,  those  details  were  taken  from 
the  "  peace  "  naval  stations.  Off  the  coast  of  Japan 
lay  the  proud  Scharnhorst  and  Gneisenau;  the  Emden 
was  stationed  off  Bombay  ;  the  Dresden  and  Magdeburg 
off  the  coast  of  South  America,  and  the  super-Dread- 
nought Deutscliland,  with  smoking  funnels  (in  token  of 
preparedness,  no  doubt),  proudly  figured  on  the  map 
just  west  of  Ireland.  The  North  Sea,  of  course,  was 
peppered  with  various  German  warships.  I  must  em- 
phasise here  that  it  was  not  a  map  printed  in  peace- 
time, but  published  after  the  outbreak  of  the  war.  I 
am  sure  it  was  one  of  the  naval  league  propaganda 
exhibits,  illustrating,  for  the  benefit  of  the  German 
people,  how  well  the  money  which  they  had  subscribed 
for  the  building  of  their  Navy  had  been  spent ! 

Alas !  before   long,  owing  to  the   activities   of  the 


BERLIN  IMPRESSIONS  63 

British  Navy,  the  map  began  to  look  very  much  out  of 
date.  The  shadow  ships  became  too  symboHc,  and, 
when,  one  after  the  other,  the  German  naval  "  peace  " 
stations  were  denuded  of  their  proud  guardians,  and 
when  one  night  some  wag  changed  the  title  of  the  map 
hanging  in  the  Hotel  Adlon  by  erasing  from  the  German 
motto :  "  Unsere  Zukunft  liegt  auf  dem  Wasser  "  the 
word  "  auf  "  and  changed  it  into  "  unter,"  the  German 
Press  Department  thought  it  was  time  to  suppress 
further  exhibition  of  the  map,  which  gradually  began  to 
illustrate  Great  Britain's  "  Britannia  rules  the  Waves  " 
far  more  than  that  Germany's  future  lay  on  the  water. 

The  sale  and  exhibition  of  that  map  was  henceforth 
strictly  prohibited  under  a  penalty  of  heavy  fines. 
Exportation  also  was  forbidden.  I  was  fortunate 
enough  to  obtain  a  copy,  and  succeeded  in  smuggling 
it  out  of  Germany.  It  is  now  at  Whitehall,  where  on 
my  return  to  England  I  took  it,  and,  together  with  some 
other  documents,  placed  it  at  the  disposal  of  the  authori- 
ties. I  have  recently  had  considerable  correspondence 
about  these  papers,  as  I  was  anxious  to  reproduce 
some  of  them  with  these  notes.  But  the  powers  that 
be  at  the  War  Office  evidently  consider  that  that  would 
be  indiscreet,  as  they  refuse  to  return  them.  (I  might 
incidentally  add  that  they  refused  to  recognise  my 
claim  for  compensation  on  account  of  depreciation  of 
my  literary  material.  However,  this  is  merely  in 
parenthesis.) 

A  very  interesting  and  popular  photographic  poster 
is  one  showing  the  German  Emperor,  in  flowing  cloak 
and  admiral's  cocked  hat,  standing  in  the  centre  of  the 
map  of  Germany  with  both  his  hands  on  the  steer- 
ing-wheel of  an  imaginary  ship.     Underneath  it  read: 


64  BEHIND  THE  GERMAN  VEIL 

"  Lieb  Vaterland  kannst  ruhig  sein, 

Du  brauchst  niemals  verzagen; 

Du  hast  den  rechten  Steuermann, 

In   diesen   schweren   Tagen." 

Freely  translated,  it  means  that  the  Fatherland  can 
be  of  good  courage,  and  need  not  despair  as  long  as  they 
have  the  right  pilot  at  the  helm. 


CHAPTER  IX 

MUNICH 

AT  the  Bavarian  "  Kriegsacademie "  (Staff  Col- 
lege), in  Munich,  which  has  been  turned  into  a 
large  hospital,  I  came  across  the  first  Allied  prisoners 
of  war.  There  were  a  large  number  of  French  and 
some  English  prisoners  there.  I  talked  to  several  of 
them  —  to  one  J.  Featherstone,  belonging  to  the  Rifle 
Brigade,  and  to  Private  G.  Kelly,  of  the  King's  Royal 
Rifles.  I  spoke  to  them  alone,  out  of  earshot  of  any  of 
the  warders  or  other  hospital  employes.  Both  assured 
me  that  they  were  being  well  treated  and  had  nothing 
whatever  to  complain  of.  It  was  the  same  with  a  num- 
ber of  Frenchmen  I  questioned.  There  was  a  man  of 
the  79th  Regiment  present,  a  certain  Perouff,  and  an- 
other of  the  76th  Regiment,  by  name  of  Henri  Gassies. 
I  had  lengthy  conversations  with  both,  and  they  stated 
most  emphatically  that  the  treatment  they  received  was 
excellent.  In  one  of  the  halls  about  sixteen  of  them 
were  sitting  round  a  long  table,  playing  cards.  From 
the  numbers  on  their  tunics  they  represented  the  fol- 
lowing regiments  :  the  37th,  46th,  55th,  56th,  76th,  77th, 
79th,  89th,  153rd,  160th  and  172nd.  PeroufF  told 
me  that  several  of  his  friends,  who  had  left  the  previous 
week,  almost  cried.  There  were  about  forty  men  to 
each  ward,  the  rooms  were  high  and  well  ventilated,  and 
each  ward  had  a  bath-room  with  two  baths,  a  shower- 
bath  and  W.C. 

The  meals  were  as  follows  (I  am  giving  here  the  in- 
formation obtained  from  PeroufF  and  Featherstone)  : 

7  A.  M.—  -  Coffee  and  bread. 

65 


66  BEHIND  THE  GERMAN  VEIL 

11  A.  M. —  Beer  (those  that  are  allowed  to  have  it). 

1 :30  p.  M. —  Soup,  meat  and  vegetables. 

4:30  P.M.— Coffee. 

6  p.  M. —  Soup  and  meat. 

One  Frenchman,  with  a  leg  wound,  who  was  still  in 
bed,  was  drawing  a  German  soldier  carrying  a  wounded 
Frenchman  —  his  own  experience ! 

The  real  marvel  of  Munich  is  the  Custom  Warehouse 
Hospital.  It  is  a  large,  very  commodious  building,  and 
as  arranged  with  true  German  method.  The  wounded 
are  brought  to  its  very  doors  by  through  trains  from 
the  front,  and  are  placed  in  a  large  hall,  where  the  dif- 
ferent cases  are  sorted  out.  Spacious  elevators  take 
them  upstairs  to  four  different  floors.  There  was  one 
large  ward  with  about  one  hundred,  perhaps  more,  beds. 
Usually  each  ward  contains  about  thirty  to  fifty.  To 
each  is  attached  a  spacious  bath-room  with  six  baths 
and  shower-baths,  and  two  movable  ones  on  wheels, 
which  can  be  placed  alongside  the  man's  bed. 

The  operating  theatre  was  a  wonderful  affair,  large 
and  light,  with  windows  on  practically  every  side.  The 
perfect  cleanliness  of  every  nook  and  corner  of  the 
building  struck  me.  The  longer  I  looked  round,  the 
more  I  was  impressed  with  the  enormous  work  it  must 
have  entailed  to  change  a  warehouse  into  a  modern 
hospital.  To  build  all  these  bath-rooms,  operating  the- 
atres and  kitchens,  to  lay  on  central  heating,  etc.,  and, 
remarking  on  this,  I  suggested  that  it  would  have  been 
almost  as  easy  to  erect  an  entirely  new  building. 

Then  I  learned  the  most  interesting  detail  of  all  from 
the  assistant  superintendent  who  was  showing  me  round. 
His  answer  fairly  made  me  gasp  and  then  smile :  "  Oh, 
no ;  it  was  not  as  difficult  as  you  think ! "  he  said,  smil- 


MUNICH  67 

ing  deprecatingly.  "  You  see,  we  Germans  always  try 
to  think  ahead.  This  building  was  only  meant  to  be  a 
customs  warehouse  in  peace  time,  and  it  was  built  on 
such  lines  and  plans  that,  when  the  need  should  arise, 
it  could  practically  at  once  be  transformed  into  a  first- 
class  modern  hospital." 

I  think  we  may  safely  let  that  statement  speak  for 
itself. 

Major  Sonnenberg,  of  the  Bavarian  War  Office,  the 
walls  of  whose  room  were,  by  the  way,  covered  with  the 
Times  war  maps,  said,  during  a  conversation  I  had  with 
him :  "  Do  you  remember  Napoleon's  saying :  '  A 
Nation  cannot  be  conquered'.''  Germany  has  never 
been  beaten  while  she  remained  united." 

Nevertheless,  the  dear  old  Major,  who  was  not  at  all 
a  typical  "  Bavarian  lion  "  and  fire-eater,  when  I  left 
suddenly  asked :  "  Cannot  America  stop  this  wholesale 
murder  ?  " 

I  also  met  the  Lord  Mayor  of  Munich,  and  had  a  long 
talk  with  him.  His  topic  was  the  "  Allied  starvation 
scheme !  "  He  gave  chapter  and  verse,  or  I  should  say 
pounds  and  ounces,  together  with  all  the  details  of 
bread-making.  He  enumerated  the  amount  of  grain, 
water  and  potato  flour  used  per  pound  of  bread.  He 
put  all  the  figures  down,  brought  forth  the  old  faithful 
"  Statistical  Yearbook,"  showed  the  number  of  bushels 
the  yearly  harvest  amounted  to,  divided  it  by  the  num- 
ber of  inhabitants,  and  thus  proved  by  *'  incontro- 
vertible "  figures  the  utter  futility  of  the  Allies  attempt- 
ing to  starve  Germany  into  submission.  Though  I  did 
not  try  to  follow  his  figures,  I  think  he  is  right.  To 
explain  whij  I  think  so  would  lead  me  far  beyond  the 
scope  of  this  chapter,  or  even  of  this  book;  but,  let 


68  BEHIND  THE  GERMAN  VEIL 

me  say  here,  as  I  have  said  in  several  other  places  in 
these  notes,  there  is  only  one  way  of  bringing  Germany 
to  her  knees,  and  that  is  by  brute  force,  by  successful 
military  operations ;  in  other  words,  by  winning  decisive 
battles. 

Captain  von  Lahmezahn,  one  of  the  few  regular  oflS- 
cers  left  in  Munich,  insisted  upon  personally  showing  me 
over  the  Prince  Arnoff  Barracks  (Bavarian  Guards). 
The  new  drafts  (1916)  had  then  been  in  training  for 
about  six  weeks,  and,  with  pardonable  pride,  he  showed 
their  condition.  Only  a  born  soldier  could  so  thor- 
oughly assimilate  the  atmosphere  of  barracks,  discipline 
and  efficiency  in  as  short  a  time  as  those  men  evidently 
had.  But  one  thing  struck  me,  there  was  a  sameness 
in  every  movement,  a  mechanical  precision  in  all  their 
actions.  (I  am  not  merely  referring  to  the  time  when 
they  were  on  parade,  but  also  to  their  subsequent  be- 
haviour.) When  we  entered  one  of  the  kitchens  a  voice 
from  nowhere  bawled  at  the  top  of  its  lungs :  "  StilK 
gestanden!  "  and  every  one  present  jumped  into  a  stiffly 
erect  position.  Then  some  one  rushed  towards  the  cap- 
tain at  a  pace  that  I  thought  must  inevitably  bring 
them  into  collision.  But  three  paces  away  he  stopped 
and  again  he  began  to  bawl  out  something,  only  this 
time  it  was  a  whole  string  of  words.  I  was  able  to 
gather  that  it  was  the  kitchen  of  the  3rd  Battalion; 
that  they  were  cooking  that  day  for  six  hundred  and 
fifty  men,  and  that  the  food  was  soup  and  meat. 

I  tasted  them,  and  found  both  excellent. 

Whenever  the  captain  stopped  a  man  and  asked  him 
a  question,  that  same  method  of  speaking,  or  rather 
shouting,  was  used  in  answer.  They  spoke  as  if  they 
had  been  addressed  by  a  man  standing  half  a  mile  off. 
I  asked  the  captain  what  the  object  of  this  method  was. 


MUNICH  69 

His  explanation  was  that  it  teaches  them  to  keep  always 
on  the  alert.  "  Many  of  the  recruits,"  he  said,  "  when 
they  arrive  at  their  depots,  are  '  mother's  darlings,' 
speak  softly  and  slowly  and  are  startled  when  you 
address  them.  After  two  weeks'  training  their  whole 
attitude  to  life,  their  manner  of  acting  and  thinking,  has 
been  changed.  Having  to  answer  at  the  top  of  their 
voices  makes  them  keen  and  alert." 

The  commandant  of  the  battalion  and  of  the  barracks 
was  a  Major  von  Calcker,  a  member  of  the  Reichstag, 
and  a  Professor  at  the  University  of  Munich.  He  was 
an  extremely  pleasant,  courteous  and  gentle  man.  Not 
at  all  the  German  officer  type.  He  explained  at  once 
that  he  was  what  in  England  is  called  a  "  dug-out." 
Though  long  past  the  age-limit,  he  had  at  once  offered 
his  services  to  the  Vaterland.  In  him,  as,  indeed,  in 
most  Bavarians  of  the  upper  classes,  I  noticed  an  entire 
absence  of  that  intense  spirit  of  hatred  so  prominent 
amongst  the  Prussians.  If  I  may  venture  a  prophecy, 
I  think  that  it  will  not  be  as  difficult  as  some  people 
imagine  (and  as  the  Prussians  would  like  us  all  to  be- 
lieve), to  separate  once  more  the  various  German 
States,  and  make  them  independent  kingdoms  and  prin- 
cipalities. I  may  be  mistaken,  but  reading  between 
the  lines,  and  at  the  bottom  of  many  expressions  of 
patriotism,  etc.,  one  could  discover  the  secret  thought: 
"  What  else  could  we  do  but  fight ;  we  are  tied  to 
Prussia,  and  practically  under  her  thumb." 

If  those  smaller  States  can  be  given  reasonable  guar- 
antees that  they  will  not  be  exposed  to  internecine  war- 
fare, or  to  an  attack  from  Prussia,  the  majority  of 
them  will  be  only  too  happy  to  cut  loose  from  their 
arrogant  masters.  The  Prussians  think  themselves  the 
super-race  of  Germans,  and  look  down  upon  the  "  zu 
gemiithliche "    {i.e.,   too   kind,   too   jovial)    "  Sachsen, 


70  BEHIND  THE  GERMAN  VEIL 

Bajern  and  Wiirtembergers."  And  the  Bavarians, 
Sachsen  and  Wiirtembergers  know  this. 

The  Bavarians  might  be  called  the  Irishmen  of  the 
German  Empire.  In  the  first  place,  they  are  primarily 
fighting  for  Bavaria  as  the  Irish  are  primarily  figliting 
for  Ireland.  Then  the  Bavarian  dearly  loves  a  fight, 
and  I  think  the  young  fellow  who  expressed  himself 
about  the  war  one  evening  at  the  "  Hofbriiuhaus  "  in 
Munich,  voiced  the  opinion  of  a  great  many  of  his 
compatriots : 

Said  he:  "  Hah!  what  h'ck  to  be  able  to  '  sich  rau- 
fen  '  "  {i.e.,  indulge  in  a  rough  and  tumble  fight)  "  with- 
out the  chance  of  some  policeman  coming  to  interfere, 
just  when  the  real  fun  begins ! " 

I  am  glad  to  notice  that  the  British  Army  has  now 
adopted  steel  helmets.  The  Germans  started  making 
and  using  them  in  October,  1914,  but  without  altering 
the  familiar  appearance  of  the  "  Pickelhaube." 

During  my  stay  in  Munich  I  made  a  short  week-end 
trip  into  the  Bavarian  Alps,  and  there  came,  quite  unex- 
pectedly, on  one  of  those  pathetic  scenes  that  are  so 
poignantly  human.'  I  had  wandered  far  out  of  my  way. 
After  a  long  afternoon's  walk  I  stopped  for  tea  —  I 
should  say  "  coffee  " — ^  at  a  little  wayside  "  Gasthaus  " 
(inn),  of  which  many  are  to  be  found  in  the  Alps. 
That  morning  the  order  had  come  for  the  son  of  the 
house,  belonging  to  the  1916  class,  to  join  his  depot. 
The  call  had  been  expected  for  several  weeks,  so  the 
boy  was  quite  ready,  and  to  judge  from  his  lively  and 
happy  demeanour,  delighted  to  go.  But  the  old  mother, 
a  little  grey-haired  lady,  could  not  share  his  enthusiasm, 
and  when  the  hour  of  parting  drew  near,  she  placed  her 
hands  in  front  of  her  face  and  sobbed.     The  Bavarian 


MUNICH  71 

guide,  a  gaunt,  strapping  old  fellow,  nervously  pulling 
at  his  long  pipe,  and  with  a  suspicion  of  tears  lurking  in 
the  corners  of  his  eyes,  patted  her  on  the  back  and 
said :  "  Come,  come,  mother,  buck  up.  Think  of  all 
the  others  who  are  sending  their  boys  to  fight  for  King 
and  Country." 

And  the  old  lady  looked  up  through  her  tears  and 
slowly  replied :     "  A  mother  does  not  think  of  others." 

But  when  voices  outside  announced  the  arrival  of 
some  of  the  other  boys  from  the  village,  bound  for  the 
same  destination,  she  pulled  herself  together,  and  call- 
ing the  boy  to  her  side,  said  in  a  mock-serious  voice; 
"  Now  don't  feel  that  you  must  always  be  the  first  every- 
where." Then  followed  a  little  ceremony  as  impressive 
as  it  was  simple.  "  Give  me  your  blessing,  mother," 
said  the  boy.  And  taking  off  his  little  round  hat  dec- 
orated with  flowers,  he  knelt  doAvn  at  the  old  lady's  feet. 
She  stretched  out  two  thin,  withered  old  hands,  and 
murmured  a  prayer  and  a  blessing.  One  more  embrace, 
and  then  he  had  gone.  Gradually  the  music  and  sing- 
ing died  down  in  the  distance. 

By  the  window  stood  the  little  mother,  and,  as  I  paid 
my  bill,  and  quietly  left  the  room,  I  heard  her  whisper: 
"  And  so  you  work  and  suffer  to  bring  up  your  child, 
and  then,  one  day  he  is  taken  away.  You  don't  know 
why,  and  you  don't  know  whither." 


CHArTER  X 

ZEPPELINS 

"  It's  our  Kaiser,  and  no  one  else,  that  the  English  have  to 
thank,  that  half  of  their  London  is  not  laid  in  ashes." 

THIS  cheerful  statement  was  made  to  me  by  Major 
Herwarth  von  Bitterfeld,  of  the  General  Staff,  at 
a  dinner  given  by  Baron  Mumm  von  Schwarzenstcin, 
of  the  Foreign  Office,  to  various  neutral  journalists, 
including  myself,  at  the  time  stationed  in  Berlin. 

My  informant  was  perfectly  serious  when  he  made  the 
statement  quoted  at  the  head  of  this  chapter,  and  I  am 
convinced  that  he  believed  every  word  he  said.  I  know 
that  he  has  many  influential  connections  in  the  Kaiser's 
immediate  entourage,  and  I  am  indebted  to  him  for 
many  bits  of  gossip  and  real  information.  Especially 
after  having  finished  a  bottle  or  two  of  "  Pommery  Sec," 
his  favourite  vintage,  Bitterfeld  could  be  relied  upon  to 
do  his  dut}^  by  any  enterprising  journalist.  In  the 
Major's  case  conviviality  bred  loquacity. 

I  heard  a  great  deal  in  those  months  about  Zeppelin 
raids  on  England.     A  great  deal  was  expected  of  them. 

In  those  days  the  favourite  shape  for  menu  cards  was 
a  pasteboard  Zeppelin  or  aeroplane.  Naturally,  not 
infrequently  they  formed  an  easy  introduction  to  aero- 
nautical subjects,  and,  of  course,  from  Zeppelins  to  a 
raid  over  London  is  only  an  after-dinner  flight. 

I  must  admit  that  many  things  I  learned  at  that 
dinner  have  subsequently  come  true ;  many  others,  again, 
have  not  and  never  will. 

The  Germans  are  poor  psychologists.     A  mass  Zep- 

72 


ZEPPELINS  75 

pelin  attack  on  London  was  looked  upon  as  the  greatest 
trump  card  Germany  had  up  her  sleeve.  They  fondly 
imagined  that  a  few  serious  raids  over  London  would 
make  the  British  public  squeal  and  clamour  for  peace! 

"  Air  defences !  Ha,  my  dear  fellow,"  so  I  was  as- 
sured again  and  again,  "  there  is  absolutely  no  adequate 
defence  against  our  Zeppelins.  They  can  fly  ten  thou- 
sand feet  high,  which  is  totally  out  of  reach  of  any  air- 
gun  yet  invented.  Let  them  make  their  London  dark; 
they  cannot  cover  up  the  Thames,  they  cannot  hide 
St.  Paul's  and  the  Tower.  As  to  attacks  by  aeroplanes, 
our  machine-guns  will  take  care  of  those." 

"  Just  what  can  a  Zeppelin  do,  or  not  do.'*  "  was  one 
of  my  pet  questions,  and  many  and  varied  were  the 
replies  I  received  in  answer.  More  about  them  anon. 
Let  us  return  to  the  soft-hearted  Kaiser  and  Major 
Bitterfeld. 

"  Ever  since  the  beginning  of  the  war,"  the  Major 
assured  me,  "  various  Chiefs  of  the  Marineamt '  "  (Ad- 
miralty) "  and  of  the  Great  General  Staffs  have  been 
trying  to  persuade  the  Emperor  to  sign  the  edict  order- 
ing periodical  air  raids  on  London.  Alas !  "  (with  a 
deep  sigh)  "  until  now  without  success."  I  was  told  — 
by  various  informants  —  that  the  Kaiser  refused  on  the 
grounds  that  London  was  an  undefended  town,  and 
that  he  could  not  allow  an  attack  from  the  air  on  his 
own  relations !..."!  know,"  sadly  concluded  the 
Major,  "how  very  hard  some  of  our  leaders  have 
pleaded  and  argued  with  him." 

"  London  is  the  heart  and  brain  of  this  terrible  war, 
and  it  should  be  given  a  taste  of  what  war  really  is. 
A  raid  with  some  ten  or  fifteen  of  our  latest  Zeppelins 
would  accomplish  this  thoroughly." 

I  was  told  that  in  February,  1915,  twenty  Zeppelins 
had  been  ready  for  a  preliminary  raid  over  London ; 


74?  BEHIND  THE  GERMAN  VEIL 

but  absolutely  at  the  eleventh  hour  the  plan  had  to  be 
abandoned  as  the  Kaiser  refused  his  sanction. 

"  It  was  the  same  old  story  with  our  submarines," 
my  informant  continued ;  "  it  took  us  several  months 
to  persuade  the  Emperor  that  we  had  to  meet  force 
with  force.  The  Bill  was  only  signed  about  six  weeks 
before  it  took  effect.  I  suppose  we  must  have  patience 
a  little  longer  with  our  Zeppelins.  Anyhow,  we  have 
been  over  to  leave  our  cards." 

Everybody  was  agreed  on  the  one  cardinal  point, 
viz.,  their  absolute  confidence  in  the  power  of  Zeppelins ; 
but  the  ideas  of  their  greatest  usefulness  differed  widely. 

"  Our  Zeppelins  may  not  entirely  revolutionise  war- 
fare, but  they  will  play  a  very  important  part  in  it. 
Up  till  now  the  need  of  them  has  not  been  so  urgent,  as 
we  have  been  fighting  mainly  on  land ;  but  when  '  The 
Day '  arrives,  and  the  British  Fleet  comes  out  of  its 
hiding-place  in  the  Irish  Sea,  then,  my  friends,  the  world 
will  learn  what  a  Zeppelin  can  do." 

The  speaker  was  a  man  in  the  early  thirties,  and  I 
feel  sure  that  he  was  sincere. 

"  Oh,"  he  added  passionately,  "  if  they  would  only 
come  out !  "  I  could  not  help  asking  with  a  perfectly 
blank  expression  on  my  face :  "  Who  —  the  British  or 
the  Germans.''  " 

"  You  see,"  another  went  on  to  explain  to  me,  "  every- 
body who  knows  anything  at  all  about  naval  warfare 
and  British  naval  strategy  is  aware  that  they  have 
always  proclaimed  the  theory  that  '  the  enemy's  coast 
is  the  first  line  of  defence.'  What  has  become  of  that 
axiom?     Where  are  their  ships?" 

I  inquired  whether  an  air  raid  over  London  would 
not  be  an  extremely  hazardous  and  expensive  under- 
taking.    How  many  of  the  twenty  Zeppelins  would  re- 


Zeppelin  Over   London 

The  End  of  England's  Sfa-Power.     Lord  Xelfion  desrendhiff  from  hh 

Column  to  hide  in  the  Undert/minid  Raihrnif 


ZEPPELINS  75 

turn?  What  would  become  of  tlie  manageability  of  an 
airship  when  heavy  loads  were  suddenly  dropped  from 
it?  Had  the  damage  they  did  to  Paris  been  worth  the 
risk?     But  nothing  could  shake  their  confidence. 

"  In  the  first  place,"  so  I  was  told  for  the  tenth  time, 
"  we  have  not  yet  begun  to  use  our  reserve  surprises. 
We  must  hold  something  back  for  emergencies.  Sup- 
pose —  mind  you,  I  say  only  suppose  —  that  we  should 
suffer  some  serious  set-back  in  France  and  Belgium,  and 
deem  it  advisable  to  retire  to  our  own  frontier.  Then 
would  come  the  time  to  bring  our  Zeppelins  into  play. 
How  long,  do  you  think,  would  the  English  population 
stand  continual  night  raids  on  their  cities?  Who  do 
3'ou  think  would  soonest  cry  '  Enough  '  ?  " 

"  Now  as  to  the  risks.  From  what  you  have  seen  of 
the  spirit,  the  enthusiasm  of  our  people,  do  you  doubt 
for  one  moment  but  that  you  could  find  a  thousand 
volunteers  a  day  for  any  Zeppelin  trip  across  the  North 
Sea?  "  (By  the  way,  I  noticed  during  the  last  weeks 
of  my  stay  in  Germany  that  they  referred  more  to  the 
crossing  of  the  North  Sea  than  —  as  was  usually  the 
case  heretofore  —  exclusively  to  "  Flying  across  the 
Channel.")  "We  Germans  do  not  think  of  our  lives 
when  the  good  of  the  Fatherland  is  at  stake." 

As  an  interesting  little  side-light  on  this  man's  char- 
acter, I  learned  later  that  he  was  originally  an  artillery 
officer ;  was  wounded  before  Verdun,  and  for  some 
months  unable  to  walk  without  a  stick.  During  that 
time  he  managed,  through  influence,  to  obtain  a  second- 
in-command  commission  on  a  submarine. 

"  I  do  not  know  a  single  compatriot  of  mine,"  he 
continued,  "  who  would  hesitate  to  volunteer  for  such 
a  journey.  Then,  as  to  material  costs.  Suppose  we 
did  lose  half  our   airships?     The  great  mistake  our 


76  BEHIND  THE  GERMAN  VEIL 

enemies  make  is  to  think  that  wc  are  weakening  as  the 
war  goes  on.  Our  great  system  is  only  the  basis  of 
our  army  and  navy. 

"  Wc  are  building  up,  creating  as  the  war  continues. 
Germany's  motto  has  changed  once  more ;  it  is  no  longer 
*  Our  future  lies  on  the  water,'  but,  '  Our  future  lies  in 
the  air.'  The  longer  tlie  war  lasts,  the  stronger  our 
air  power  will  be,  the  less  England  will  remain  an  island. 
Our  visit  to  Paris,  like  our  trip  to  England,  was  nothing 
more  than  a  trial  spin.  As  on  the  occasion  of  our  raid 
on  England  the  fuses  of  most  of  the  bombs  we  dropped 
were  turned  off  so  that  they  should  not  explode.  If 
necessary,  we  can  build  an  airship  in  a  month,  and  an 
aeroplane  in  just  half  that  time. 

*'  Just  as  likely  as  not,  this  war  may  not  be  definitely 
decided ;  but,  in  that  case,  it  will  soon  be  followed  by 
another  war  with  England,  and  then  our  airships  will 
play  the  greatest  part." 

I  inquired  what  England  was  going  to  do  in  the  mean- 
time, whether  she  was  going  to  lag  behind  in  the  building 
of  an  air  fleet?  Perhaps  Albion  would  say:  "For 
every  German  airship  we'll  build  two  !  "     What  then  ? 

I  Avas  anxious  to  see  what  the  answer  would  be. 
Truth  to  tell,  I  thought  I  had  him  "  on  the  hip."  The 
speaker  looked  at  me  for  a  second  or  two  before  answer- 
ing. If  I  had  wanted  to  be  very  critical  I  might  have 
discovered  a  trace  of  sincere  pity  in  his  look.  Such 
ignorance !     Then  he  smiled  good-humouredly. 

"  What,  then,  you  ask.?  England  has  not  the  armies 
which  it  can  transport  —  by  air  —  to  Germany,  to  de- 
liver a  decisive  battle,  and  to  follow  up  the  advantage  of 
her  air  fleet.  The  Britisher,  in  his  conceited  ignorance, 
his  boastfulness,  will  never  agree  to  conscription,  and 
no  one  will  ever  be  able  to  make  him  see  his  danger. 


ZEPPELINS  77 

Therein  lies  his  ultimate  ruin.  I  say  once  more,  and 
most  emphatically,  England's  greatest  strength,  the 
fact  of  its  being  an  island,  is  disappearing  fast.  The 
huge  size  of  its  Empire,  its  millions  of  inhabitants,  its 
fleet,  none  of  those  factors  will  count.  Ifs  the  twenty- 
five  miles  between  Dover  and  Calais  which  will  ultimately 
seal  her  fate,  and  make  her  cede  her  place,  as  the  first 
world-power,  to  Germany.^' 

"  Willielmshaven,  the  nearest  German  naval  harbour, 
is  nearly  three  hundred  miles  from  London,  and,  as  far 
as  Berlin  is  concerned,  that  town  is  entirely  beyond 
English  reach.  But  London  is  less  than  one  hundred 
miles  from  Calais,  near  enough  to  organise  an  aerial 
invasion.  I  do  not  say  that  is  going  to  happen  in  this 
war,  but  it  will  come." 

We  returned  then  to  the  subject  of  Zeppelins  as  an 
auxiliary  to  the  fleet.  Here  is  the  formula  which  was 
sketched  for  me  on  the  back  of  a  menu-card :  "  The 
cost  of  a  Zeppelin  is  about  £125,000."  (I  have  seen  in 
England  figures  that  state  double  this  amount,  but  I  am 
quite  sure  they  are  exaggerated.  The  first  naval  Zeppe- 
lins cost  a  million  marks  (£50,000).  Recent  improve- 
ments have  not  increased  the  cost  of  construction  by 
more  than  150  per  cent.)  "One  British  Dreadnought 
costs  £2,000,000.  Suppose  we  spend  a  little  over  half 
the  money  a  Dreadnought  costs  on  airships,  that  would 
give  us  ten  Zeppelins  to  place  against  every  British 
Dreadnought.  A  Dreadnought  needs  about  1,000  men; 
ten  airships  about  200.  A  Dreadnought  can  do  about 
25  miles  an  hour,  an  airship  at  least  40  to  50.  How  is 
a  battleship  going  to  escape  its  ten  pursuers? 

"  Give  each  airship  only  ten  torpedoes,  each  the 
average  weight  of  a  man,  say,  about  75  kilogrammes. 
Now,  my  friend,  will  you  tell  me  what  chance  a  British 


78  BEHIND  THE  GERMAN  VEIL 

battleship  would  have  under  such  circumstances?  A 
hundred  air  torpedoes  raining  from  the  sky,  any  one  of 
which  can  destroy  her." 

The  dimensions  of  the  latest  Super-Zeppelins  are  ap- 
proximately : 

Length 800  feet. 

Diameter    75  feet. 

Speed ..50  to  60  miles. 

Navigable  height 15,000  feet. 

Gas-capacity  approx.  ..2,000,000  cubic  feet. 

The  subject  of  the  number  of  Zeppelins  Germany  has 
has  always  been  a  matter  of  speculation,  in  Germany 
itself  as  well  as  abroad.  The  figures  I  learned  in  Ger- 
many ranged  between  50  and  120.  The  rule  of  the 
happy  medium  may  apply  here,  too.  Official  figures 
are  difficult,  if  not  entirely  impossible  to  obtain.  The 
Zeppelins  now  are  mostly  under  the  jurisdiction  of  the 
German  "  Marineamt,"  and  it  would  be  easier  to  make 
the  Sphinx  talk  than  to  squeeze  an  interview  of  any 
importance  or  value  out  of  that  institution.  I  am 
speaking  from  personal  experience. 

What  I  did  come  across,  though  —  how,  when  and 
where  are  of  no  interest  at  present  —  was  an  official 
list  of  Zeppelin  sheds  in  Germany.  I  was  indiscreet 
enough  to  feast  my  hungry  journalistic  eyes  on  it,  and 
even  succeeded  in  making  a  hasty  copy.  From  this 
list  it  is  possible  to  construct  a  fairly  accurate  estimate 
of  the  number  of  Zeppelins  Germany  has,  or  at  least 
had,  last  year. 

On  the  Eastern  frontier  there  are  seven  different 
Zeppelin  stations,  viz.: 

Thorn, 
Allenstein, 


ZEPPELINS  79 

Schneidemiihl, 

Posen, 

Liegnitz  (near  Breslau), 

Konigsberg, 

Graudenz. 

Near  the  Western  frontier  fifteen  diflferent  stations 
were  enumerated,  viz.,  at: 
Metz, 

Aix  la  Chapelle, 
Strassburg, 

Cologne  (at  Nippes  and  at  Bickendorf), 
Frankfurt-am-Main, 
Friedrichshafen, 

Manzell    (near  Friedrichshafen), 
Oos   (Baden,  Black  Forest), 
Mannheim, 
Treves, 

Lahr  (Baden), 
Leichlingen  (near  Essen), 
Wanne. 

Berlin  is  practically  surrounded  by  Zeppelin  sheds. 
They  are  at: 

Johannisthal  (General  Aerodrome), 

Tegel, 

Biesdorf, 

Potsdam. 

In    Central    Germany    the    following    places    were 
recorded  as  having  Zeppelin  sheds : 

Dresden, 

Leipzig, 

Bitterfeld  (twenty-five  miles  north  of  Leipzig), 

Gotha, 

Hanover. 


80  BEHIND  THE  GERMAN  VEIL 

Near  the  coast  (North  Sea)   are: 

Wilhelmshaven, 

Cuxhaven, 

Heligoland, 

Fuhlsbiittel  (Hamburg), 

Tondem, 

Tonning, 

Kiel. 

In  Belgium: 

Brussels, 
Ghent, 
Dinant, 
Bruges. 

In  addition  to  these  there  are  said  to  be  twenty-two 
portable  Zeppelin  sheds. 

Together  with  the  above  list,  and  a  map  showing 
Zeppelin  sheds  in  Germany,  I  obtained  plans  and  draw- 
ings of  a  Zeppelin,  giving  much  interesting  information. 
I  cannot  reproduce  them  here  as  they  are  still  at  White- 
hall. 

I  give  you  these  views  for  what  they  are  worth.  I 
must  add  that  they  are  not  the  opinions  of  civilians, 
but  all  of  them  were  expressed  to  me  either  by  military 
or  naval  officers,  some  of  them  members  of  flying 
squadrons. 

One  of  the  main  reasons  why  they  thought  their 
Zeppelins  invincible  was  explained  to  me  again  and 
again,  and  at  great  length. 

"  You  see,  our  latest  Super-Zeppelins  are  filled  with 
absolutely  uninflammable  gas,"  so  I  was  told.  "  They 
can  punch  as  many  holes  in  that  great  gas  bag  as  they 
like,  but  as  long  as  two  of  the  twenty  odd  compartments 


ZEPPELINS  81 

remain  whole,  the  Zeppelin  will  be  able  to  return  home !  " 
I  wonder  what  they  are  thinking  about  that  "  unin- 
flammable gas  "  now ! 

Several  posters  and  caricatures  have,  of  course,  been 
drawn  playing  on  Zeppelin  raids  over  England.  Illus- 
tration facing  this  page  is  called  "  Zeppelinitis,"  and 
shows  Nelson  descending  from  his  column  to  hide  in 
the  Underground  Railway.  Sub-title  is,  "  The  End  of 
England's  Sea-Power." 


CHAPTER  XI 


SPIES    AND    SPYING 


EIGHTY  MILLION  MARKS  (fOUR  MILLION  STERLING) 
was  German^^'s  annual  budget  for  her  spy  system 
before  the  war.  What  it  amounts  to  now  it  is  impos- 
sible to  estimate. 

*'  One  good  spy  is  worth  a  dozen  diplomats." 
Thus  Herr  Matthias  Erzberger,  leader  of  the  powerful 
Centrum  Party,  chief  spy  and  press  manipulator  in 
Italy  before  it  entered  the  war,  and  personal  crony  of 
the  Kaiser,  one  evening  in  Berlin  while  we  were  dis" 
cussing  German  diplomats. 

In  these  two  statements  3'ou  have  the  German  es- 
pionage principle  in  a  nutshell. 

Let  me  first  give  you  a  few  names  and  details  of  some 
of  the  main  characters  in  the  story  of  the  German  spy 
system.  They  are  all  real  names,  not  fictitious  ones. 
The  majority  can  be  found  in  the  German  equivalents 
of  Who's  Who,  and  the  Army  and  Civil  Lists. 

Leutnant  Baron  Max  Hochwachtee 

As  I  have  mentioned  already,  he  was  for  several  years 
(up  to  August,  1914)  so-called  manager  and  director  of 
the  Stuttgart  Daimler  Motor  Works  branch  in  London. 
His  age  is  about  thirty-five.  He  is  quite  handsome. 
His  English  and  French  are  perfect.  He  expects  to 
return  to  London  the  moment  peace  is  declared.  As  he 
foresees  some  difficulties  for  Germans  "  the  first  six 
months  after  the  war,"  he  will  be  a  "  Frenchman." 

82 


SPIES  AND  SPYING  — I  83 

Major  Freiherb  Herwarth  von  Bitterfeld 

Berlin  Great  General  Staff.  Son  of  the  well-known 
General  of  that  name.  Formerly  military  attache  at 
the  German  Embassy  in  Washington  (succeeded  by  the 
notorious  von  Papen).  Ostensibly  he  is  connected  with 
the  "  Prcsse  Abteilung  "  of  the  Great  General  Staff, 
but  in  reality  he  is  a  member  of  the  Intelligence  service. 
His  mission  is  to  make  himself  popular  with  foreign 
journalists.     To  what  purpose  I  shall  show  later. 

Matthias  Erzberger 

Leader  of  the  Catholic  Centrum  Party  in  the  Reichs- 
tag. Ten  years  ago  he  was  a  village  schoolmaster  in 
Bavaria ;  to-day  he  is  one  of  the  men  in  closest  contact 
with  the  German  Emperor.  He  is  frequently  in  con- 
flict with  the  Chancellor.  Persona  grata  at  the  Holy 
See.  Made  frantic  efforts  to  keep  Italy  out  of  the 
war. 

One  of  the  master  brains  of  Germany's  espionage 
system. 

Hauptmann  von  Brauchitsch 

Berlin  General  Staff.  Man  of  mystery.  Some  say 
that  he  is  the  notorious  Steinhauer,  chief  of  the  German 
spy  system.  His  father  lived  in  France  before  the  war 
of  1870  as  Monsieur  "  de  "  Brauchitsch.  He  was  an 
intimate  friend  of  the  great  Stieber,  who  founded  Ger- 
many's espionage  system.  When  in  September,  1870, 
Bismarck  wanted  a  "  good  Prussian  "  as  Prefect, of  the 
Seine-et-Oise  district,  Stieber  told  him  that  he  had  the 
very  man  he  wanted  —  Monsieur  de  Brauchitsch.  Cap- 
tain von  Brauchitsch  accompanied  the  Kaiser  on  his 
visit  to  London  in  1911. 


84  BEHIND  THE  GERMAN  VEIL 

Ma.  AuBEEY  Stanhope 

A  renegade  Britisher.  Editor  of  a  sheet  called  the 
Continental  Times,  in  which  he  makes  bi-  and  tri-weekly 
attacks  on  his  mother  country.  In  his  free  time  he 
works  for  the  German  anti-espionage  department.  A 
despicable  traitor,  and  I  had  the  great  satisfaction  of 
telling  him  so.  He  calls  himself  "  neutral."  Was  an 
intimate  friend  of  the  late  Roger  Casement. 

Frank  Paswell 

Supposed  to  be  an  American.  He  is  in  the  service 
of  Erzberger.  (Z  saw  his  pass  signed  by  the  latter.) 
German  propagandist  in  Russia.  Address:  Hotel 
Astoria,  Petrograd. 

Major  (or  Captain)  Egon  von  Kapher 

Member  of  the  Intelligence  Department,  and  an  ex- 
pert in  the  trade.  He  has  written  several  treatises  on 
the  subject  of  spying,  and  from  what  I  learned  in  many 
long  conversations  with  him,  especially  after  dinner,  an 
expert  in  practice  as  well  as  in  theory. 

Herr  Rader,  or  Rader 

Secretary  to  Herr  Zimmermann,  Permanent  Under- 
Secretary  of  the  Foreign  Office.  "  Rader  "  probably 
his  nom  de  guerre. 

Fraulein  L 

A  French- Austrian,  playing  both  parts.  I  met  her 
four  years  ago  in  New  York.  She  was  then  "  French." 
In  Berlin  she  was  "  Austrian."  A  charming,  most 
vivacious,  clever  and  attractive  3'oung  person.  I  do 
not  know  whether  she  was  a  French  or  an  Austrian  spy. 
That  she  was  either  the  one  or  the  other  is  certain. 


SPIES  AND  SPYING  — I  85 

In  the  emharras  de  richesse  of  spy  data  it  is  difficult 
to  know  where  to  begin. 

One  of  the  most  phenomenal  parts  of  this  organisa- 
tion is  their  card  index  system.  From  what  I  learned 
about  it,  it  would  seem  that  there  are  few  officers  in  any 
Army  or  Navy,  few  politicians  or  diplomats,  etc.,  of 
any  country,  who  are  not  listed  in  Berlin. 

The  most  minute  details  are  recorded  —  character, 
age,  financial  position,  efficiency,  hobbies,  friends  and 
associates.  If  married,  similar  details  are  given  about 
the  man's  wife :  whether  she  is  faithful,  and,  if  not,  who 
her  lover  is ;  her  friends,  etc.,  etc. 

Every  country  has  its  chief  inspectors,  inspectors, 
sub-inspectors  and  ordinary  agents.  Woe  betide  the 
man  who  is  responsible  if  at  the  yearly  audit  some  of 
the  details  prove  missing  or  incorrect.  Many  English- 
men of  a  certain  position  will  no  doubt  recall  having 
received  little  typewritten  notices  informing  them  that 
if  at  any  time  they  should  be  in  deed  of  a  loan  (whether 
small  or  large),  they  can  always  be  accommodated  on 
their  note  of  hand  alone,  etc.,  etc.  Usually  they  bear 
as  signature  a  good  old  English  name.  But  the  money 
behind  it  is  more  often  than  not  German  capital.  Close 
observation  is  kept  on  any  officer  or  N.C.O.  who  for 
some  reason  or  other  is  cashiered  or  discharged.  Those 
who  are  still  more  unfortunate,  viz.,  those  that  happen 
to  land  in  gaol,  are  never  lost  sight  of.  British  gaols 
have  supplied  the  German  Intelligence  Department  with 
many  a  recruit. 

Special  registers  are  kept  of  every  foreigner  living  in 
Germany,  and  you  may  be  certain  that  in  a  country 
where  half  the  population  is  employed  in  spying  on  the 
other  half,  what  the  Intelligence  Department  docs  not 
know  about  the  foreigner  is  not  worth  knowing.     They 


86  BEHIND  TPIE  GERMAN  VEIL 

are  all  part  and  parcel  (the  foreign  element,  I  mean) 
of  Germany's  spy  system.  They  are  the  "  raw  mate- 
rial," so  to  speak. 

One  does  not  like  to  write  about  women,  but  a  dis- 
cussion of  their  system  would,  indeed,  be  very  incom- 
plete if  the  fair  sex  were  left  out.  To  enumerate  the 
various  types  employed  would  need  a  separate  chapter, 
if  not  a  whole  book.  They  are  as  varied  as,  shall  we 
say,  the  sex  itself. 

As  a  rule,  they  are  emplo^^ed  in  "  team  work  " —  i.e., 
they  work  together  with  a  man.  Many  of  them  have 
the  air  and  the  manners  of  the  grande  dame;  others, 
again  are  charming  ingenues.  Every  one  of  them  is 
fiendishly  clever,  and  they  prove  every  day  the  fallacy 
of  the  old  theory  that  a  woman  cannot  keep  a  secret. 
I  have  met  several  of  these  "  ladies  "  in  Berlin ;  but 
whereas  I  had  many  an  interesting  conversation  with 
the  male,  the  female  of  the  species  proved  too  much  for 
me.  I  never  got  anything  worth  writing  about  out  of 
them. 

Another  member  of  the  German  Spy  Staff  operating 
in  London  was  a  certain  Miss  Smyth  (I  do  not  know 
whether  that  was  her  London  name). 

She  was  a  charming  American  girl,  chaperoned  by 
her  British  aunt  (by  advertisement).  But  after  Miss 
Smyth  had  made  many  social  conquests  and  connec- 
tions, suddenly  all  her  entertainments  ceased.  Poor 
Miss  Smyth !  Her  unscrupulous  brother,  whom  she  had 
trusted  implicitly,  had  speculated  and  lost  his  and  her 
whole  fortune.  She  did  not  care  to  return  to  America 
on  account  of  the  disgrace  her  brother  had  fallen  into. 
Did  people  think  she  could  find  a  position  as  governess, 
companion,  or  "just  anything".?     Many  offers  were 


SPIES  AND  SPYING  — I  87 

received,  and  as  in  the  household  of  a  certain  well-known 
statesman,  the  children's  governess  had  opportunely 
left,  Miss  Smyth  obtained  the  position.  She  stayed 
with  them  for  two  years,  and  amply  earned  her  salary 
from  the  German  Intelligence  Department. 

The  German  Intelligence  Department  claims  exclusive 
knowledge  of  the  preparation  of  a  certain  kind  of  sen- 
sitised paper  for  copying  and  photographing  plans, 
maps,  letters  and  other  documents  without  a  camera. 
Two  pieces  of  glass  are  all  that  is  needed.  The  sensi- 
tised paper  and  the  document  to  be  copied  are  placed 
between  the  glass,  and  at  night,  or  in  a  darkened  room, 
are  exposed  to  candlelight  for  a  matter  of  a  few  minutes. 
The  preparation  can  also  be  used  for  sensitising  the 
pages  of  an  ordinary  book,  novels  preferably,  or  news- 
papers. The  impression  only  appears  after  develop- 
ment in  a  certain  fluid  (somewhat  on  the  principle  of 
gas-light  developing  paper). 

I  was  told  that  in  this  manner  long  reports  contain- 
ing valuable  information  are  being  brought  out  of  Eng- 
land to  this  day. 

One  of  the  cleverest  schemes,  though,  of  taking  writ- 
ten material  out  of  this  country  is  in  the  lining  of 
clothes.  No,  I  do  not  mean  having  thin  paper  sewn 
inside  the  lining.  That  is  an  old,  discarded  trick. 
The  new  dodge  is  to  typewrite  the  reports  on  ordinary 
lining  material  with  what  are  called  book-keepers'  type- 
writers. Then  the  stuff  is  treated  with  a  certain 
preparation,  whereupon  the  writing  disappears.  A 
friendly  tailor  does  the  rest. 

And  they  def}'^  any  British  detective  to  discover  such 
reports,  which,  needless  to  say,  can  be  quite  extensive. 


CHAPTER  XII 

SPIES    AND    SPYING II 

BARON  HOCHWACHTER  boasted  that  in  Eng- 
land you  could  buy  anything  if  you  had  the  price. 
"  To  any  foreigner  who  comes  to  London  with  a  well- 
filled  purse,  and  who  is  willing  to  spend  handsomely,  all 
doors  are  open,  no  matter  of  what  race  or  nationality 
he  may  be  —  German,  Jew,  Turk,  or  Negro.  He  is 
asked  to  English  entertainments,  English  country 
houses,  where  he  meets  everybody  he  wants  to  meet 
from  Ro3^alty  downwards." 

They  call  this  in  Berlin,  "  Mobilisation  of  the  Draw- 
ing-room." From  what  I  subsequently  learned,  it  was 
often  also  a  case  of  mobilising  the  "  back-stairs  "  re- 
gions. 

Before  leaving  Hochwachter,  I  must  mention  that  he 
is  quite  convinced  that  shortly  after  peace  has  been 
signed  he  will  return  to  his  old  haunts  in  London.  He 
turned  over  the  contents  of  his  luxurious  flat  in  May- 
fair  to  an  English  friend  who  takes  care  of  it  for  hira 
till  after  the  war.  "  That's  more  sensible,  eh,"  he 
grinned  at  me,  "  than  the  way  in  which  that  fool  Miin- 
ster  "  (referring  to  Prince  Miinster,  of  Twickenham) 
"  arranged  his  affairs.  If  he  had  done  the  same,  then 
the  Government  would  never  have  been  able  to  touch 
his  estate." 

Germany's  Intelligence  Department  overlooks  few 
points.  They  know,  as  President  Lincoln  said,  that 
you  can  fool  all  people  some  of  the  time,  and  some 
people  all  the  time,  but  that  you  cannot  fool  all  the 


SPIES  AND  SPYING  — n  89 

people  all  the  time.  They  suspected  that  even  England 
would  some  day  wake  up  to  the  German  danger  in  her 
midst.  And  then  ..."  what  about  our  Intelligence 
Department?  " 

The  German  Intelligence  Department  is  built  on  such 
sound  foundations  (this  seems  rather  an  ironical  adjec- 
tive to  use  for  an  institution  that  is  ethically  and  mor- 
ally so  utterly  rotten,  but  the  reader  will  know  what 
I  mean),  that  it  can  change  personnel  and  working- 
method  in  an  instant  and  without  interrupting  the 
smooth  running  of  the  great  machine. 

I  will  try  to  describe  some  of-  the  new  ways  employed 
since  the  war,  and  let  me  hasten  to  add  that  my  knowl- 
edge was  gained  from  a  thorough  personal  investiga- 
tion. 

First,  I  will  deal  with  the  procedure  in  Germany 
itself.  As  I  have  mentioned  elsewhere  in  these  notes, 
every  foreigner  in  Germany  is  registered.  This  is  not 
a  regulation  inaugurated  since  the  beginning  of  the 
war,  it  has  existed  for  many  years.  He  must  notify 
the  police  whenever  he  moves  from  one  place  to  another, 
or  when  he  intends  leaving  the  country.  I  think  it  is 
no  exaggeration  to  say  that  the  authorities  know  to 
a  few  pfennigs  how  much  their  guests  have  in  the  bank, 
what  their  income  is,  how  much  their  yearly  expendi- 
ture is,  etc.,  etc.  You  see,  they  know  the  game  of  es- 
pionage by  harmless  shopkeepers,  traders,  small  busi- 
ness men,  etc.,  who  are  to  be  found  in  every  European 
country.  If  only  the  people  would  take  the  trouble  to 
investigate  the  matter,  they  would  find  that  many  of 
these  "  harmless  "  little  shopkeepers  spend  double  and 
treble  the  amount  of  money  their  businesses  earn. 

The  foreign  population  of  Germany  is  recorded  on 
separate   registers   and  divided  into  different  classes, 


90  BEHIND  THE  GERMAN  VEIL 

not  only  according  to  their  social  status,  income  and 
position,  but  also  according  to  their  intelligence,  senti- 
ments and  so  on.  When  war  broke  out  all  foreigners 
in  Germany  were  "  mobilised."  The  list  and  card- 
indexes  were  carefully  gone  over  and  suitable  persons 
selected.  American,  Dutch  and  Swiss  ranked  amongst 
the  "favourite"  (?)  nationalities.  German  friends  of 
the  foreigner  would  be  approached.  They,  in  turn, 
threw  out  feelers  towards  the  "  neutral."  If  it  was  a 
case  of  "  Barkis  is  willing,"  and  the  man  had  the  neces- 
sary intelligence,  he  was  at  once  taken  in  hand  and 
tutored  into  a  naval,  military,  or  political  spy  (some- 
times into  all  tliree). 

Foreign  subjects,  if  unsuitable  for  intelligence  work, 
were  frequently  persuaded  to  part  with  their  passports. 
Only  in  very  rare  cases,  I  think,  have  whole  passports 
been  forged.  Why  should  they  be  when  plenty  of  au- 
thentic ones  can  so  easily  be  bought.? 

All  this  work  comes  under  the  supervision  of  Section 
11  of  the  Intelligence  Department  of  the  Great  General 
Staff  in  Berlin. 

One  of  the  most  interesting  and  illuminating  inter- 
views I  had  in  Berlin  was  with  Herr  Rader  (or  Rader), 
Secretary  to  Herr  Zimmermann,  Permanent  Under- 
Secretary   at   the   Foreign   Office. 

At  the  conclusion  of  the  dinner,  Rader  lost  little  time 
coming  to  the  point.  I  think  that  I  cannot  do  better 
than  to  record  the  conversation  here.  I  give  it  prac- 
tically verbatim. 

Rader:  Your  profession  must  be  intensely  interest- 
ing, Herr  Beaufort.  I  hear  you  have  visited  practi- 
cally all  the  different  theatres  of  war.? 

;  Hm,   yes,   rather!     Most   interesting,    I   can 

assure   you.     It   broadens    one's   point    of   view,   you 


SPIES  AND  SPYING  — II  91 

know,  to  be  able  to  see  different  sides  of  a  question. 

Rader:  Hm,  yes,  quite  so,  ahem!  quite  so!  But,  eh, 
well,  I  do  not  wish  to  seem  impertinent,  but  do  you  find 
it  is  work  that  pays?  From  what  I  know  about  these 
newspaper  proprietors,  they  are  not  very  liberal  with 
their  salaries. 

;  Oh,  well,  as  far  as  that  goes,  yes,  I  think  you 

are  right.  Now  I  come  to  think  of  it,  they  do  rather 
underpay  us.  We  ought  to  have  a  journalistic  trades' 
union  —  what  ? 

Rader:  Yes,  I  often  wonder  when  I  talk  to  3^ou  chaps, 
and,  of  course,  I  come  in  contact  with  a  great  many 
journalists  in  my  official  capacity  (that  was  a  lie;  he 
had  little  or  nothing  to  do  with  bona-fide  journalists), 
it  strikes  me  that,  considering  the  amount  of  energy 
you  expend  on  your  work,  the  amount  of  brains  it  takes 
to  be  a  good  journalist,  you  are  the  worst  paid  profes- 
sion in  the  world.  Take  your  own  case.  A  man  of 
your  accomplishments  (I  bow),  of  3'our  linguistic  abili- 
ties (I  blush  with  modesty!  .  .  .  mentally),  your  ad- 
dress and  your  intelligence  (I  rise  and  bow  and  blush 
.  .  .  mentally)  — well,  do  not  think,  pray,  that  I  am 
exaggerating,  but  you  should  be  earning  at  least  5,000 
marks  (£250)  a  month,  which  I  am  sure  you  do  not. 

:  (You  "  register,"  as  they  say  in  cinematogra- 
phy, incredulity,  surprise,  wonder,  etc. )  Then :  Really, 
you  know,  Herr  Rader,  I  am  afraid  that  you  are  try- 
ing what  your  friend  the  enemy  across  the  Channel,  I 
believe,  describes  as  "  Pulling  me  by  the  legs."  Five 
thousand  marks  a  month?  (with  expression),  why, 
"  lead  me  to  it,"  as  they  would  say  in  New  York. 

Rader:  I  can  "  lead  you  to  it,"  and  perhaps  even  to 
a  great  deal  more.  There  are  some  splendid  opportuni- 
ties these  days  for  "  Neutrals,"  for  men  of  your  ability. 
1  will  give  you  a  rough  idea  about  the  work.     Strange 


90  BEHIND  THE  GERIVIAN  VEIL 

as  it  will  seem  to  you,  even  to  this  day  the  majority  of 
people  in  France,  Russia  and  England,  are  still  abso- 
lutely ignorant  of  the  real  state  of  affairs,  not  only  in 
Germany,  but  also  of  the  military  situation  in  general. 
They  are  deliberately  deluded  by  their  governments 
and  their  Press.  We  feel  convinced  that  if  Germany's 
cause,  Germany's  invincibility,  Germany's  sound  and 
strong  condition,  were  better  known  abroad  this  war 
would  soon  be  ended  by  public  pressure.  What  can  be 
the  object  of  continuing  this  dreadful  process  of  mur- 
der, bloodshed  and  destruction.''  As  our  Chancellor 
said :  "  Germany  cannot  be  desthoyed."  Now, 
some  of  our  best  brains,  military,  political  and  economic, 
have  written  clear  and  popular  articles  on  the  present 
situation.  Not,  mind  you,  entirely  from  the  German 
point  of  view,  but  in  a  manner  in  which  any  intelligent 
and  reasonable  neutral  observer  would  record  them  if 
he  had  the  opportunity  to  see  and  judge  things.  There 
are  still  plenty  of  influential  and  reasonable  peo- 
ple IN  France,  Russia  and  England  who  would  assist 
us  in  bringing  the  true  facts  before  their  misinformed 
countrymen.  Think  this  over.  If,  in  principle,  you 
feel  inclined  to  carry  out  some  really  interesting,  but, 
above  all,  some  very  remunerative  work,  I  will  submit 
the  matter  to  my  chief.  Of  course,  this  work  would  in 
nowise  interfere  with  your  present  occupation,  as  the 
articles  are  supplied  to  you,  translated  and  ready  for 
publication. 

I  inquired  whether  the  "  influential "  and  "  reason- 
able people  "  in  France,  Russia  and  England  would  as- 
sist me  personally  in  placing  the  articles,  and  I  was 
assured  they  would.  From  this  I  concluded  that  I 
would  be  supplied  with  a  list  of  those  "  reasonable  peo- 
ple "  who  were  willing  to  assist  Germany.  Needless  to 
say,  I  told  them  that  I  did  not  require  any  time  for 


SPIES  AND  SPYING  — II  93 

thinking  the  matter  over,  that  I  had  quite  made  up  my 
mind  to  accept  the  proposal.  (I  hoped  that  they  would 
continue  their  revelations,  but  in  this  I  was  disap- 
pointed.) 

"  Very  well,"  said  Rader ;  "  Bitterfeld,  will  you  see 
that  he  meets  von  Stein  "  (whoever  that  might  be), 
and  addressing  himself  again  to  me :  "  I  will  take  the 
matter  up  at  once,  and  you  will  hear  from  us  in  a  week 
or  so." 

But,  alas !  before  the  end  of  the  week  an  unforeseen 
calamity  brought  my  German  voyage  of  discovery  to  an 
untimely  end. 

Shortly  after  my  return  to  London  I  saw  at  one  of 
the  night  clubs  —  a  favourite  rendezvous  for  those 
gentry  —  a  "  neutral "  who  I  knew  for  a  fact  was  in 
the  service  of  the  German  Government.  I  reported  him 
to  the  authorities,  but  never  heard  anything  further 
about  it. 

It  is  unnecessary  to  add  that  when  these  travelling 
"neutral"  journalists  receive  their  final  instructions, 
they  are  not  confined  to  merely  trying  to  place  the 
German-made  articles.  On  their  periodical  return  to 
Berlin  they  are  expected  to  be  able  to  write  and  give 
interesting  reports  on  what  they  saw  in  the  countries 
they  visited.  These  reports  are  strictly  for  the  infor- 
mation of  the  General  Staff.  They  are  not  circulated 
in  the  Press,  thus  advertising  the  fact  to  the  enemy  that 
German  investigators  have  been  at  work  in  their  coun- 
try.^ 

The  manner  of  procedure  in  neutral  countries  is 
probably  better  known.     German  agents  who  live  there, 

1  It  is  only  quite  recently  that  the  first  articles  giving  a  neu- 
tral's impressions  of  London  and  England  have  appeared  in  the 
German  Press. 


94  BEHIND  THE  GERMAN  VEIL 

have  their  own  private  lists  of  "  Friends  of  the  Father- 
land," very  useful  in  war-time.  They  know  that  they 
cannot  travel  in  the  belligerent  countries  themselves, 
but  of  course  their  hosts  can.  These  men  arc,  as  a  rule, 
business  men  connected  with  a  Well-known  firm,  and  are 
extremely  difficult  to  catch. 

You  should  have  at  every  port  of  embarkation  in  the 
United  Kingdom  officials  of  every  nationality,  men  who 
know  their  own  language  thoroughly.  I  have  met  many 
Englishmen  who  speak  foreign  languages,  but  mighty 
few  that  know  enough  about  them  to  discover  the  na- 
tionality of  the  man  they  converse  with. 

Then  there  arc  your  Consuls.  I  returned  from  Ger- 
many via  a  neutral  country.  I  presented  my  passport 
issued  in  Berlin  (my  old  one  did  not  conform  to  certain 
German  regulations,  so  I  had  to  change  it)  to  the  Brit- 
ish Consul.  I  paid  my  two  or  three  shillings,  I  forget 
how  much.  He  hardly  looked  at  the  photograph, 
stamped  and  signed  the  back  of  my  passport,  and  that 
was  all.  I  think  the  whole  formality  took  about  three 
minutes. 

Now  that  is  simply  asking  for  trouble.  You  must 
have  Britishers,  I  mean  born  Britishers,  as  Consuls 
wherever  they  have  the  authority  to  vise  passports  for 
embarkation  to  England.  You  cannot  expect  a  neutral 
Consul  to  take  the  same  care  and  interest  in  investigat- 
ing the  bona-fides  of  alien  travellers  as  an  Englishman 
would.^  Don't  be  so  afraid  of  stepping  on  the  toes  of 
neutrals  or  even  of  a  neutral  government.  They  will 
get  over  it.  To  them  it  is  not  a  matter  of  life  and 
death. 

If  you  are  too  considerate  of  other  people's  feelings, 
it  may  have  disastrous  results.  It  may  be  a  matter 
of  life  and  death  to  many  of  your  countrymen.     Is  it 

I  This  was  written  before  the  Holzapfel  episode. 


SPIES  AND  SPYING  — II  95 

not  better  to  suspect,  to  inconvenience  a  hundred  inno- 
cent neutrals  and  so-called  "  Britishers,"  persons  of 
German  descent,  than  that  one  British  Tommy,  one 
British  woman  or  child  should  suffer  or  die? 

If  I  have  a  house  and  my  guests  do  not  like  my 
servants,  my  meals,  or  the  way  I  run  it,  well,  let  them 
depart.  The  same  applies  to  England.  Those  who  do 
not  like  the  conditions  of  entry  or  of  living  here,  who 
grumble  at  any  little  sacrifices  or  inconveniences,  well 
...  let  them  stay  away.  During  the  first  year  of  the 
war  the  regulations  and  restrictions  with  regard  to  the 
landing  and  embarkation  of  aliens  at  your  ports  were  so 
lax,  that  for  all  one  knew  England  might  have  been  in 
statu  quo. 


CHAPTER  XIII 

SPIES    AND    SPYING HI 

THE  Hotel  Adlon,  Berlin's  principal  hotel,  is  a  regu- 
lar clearing-house  for  spies,  spy-hunters,  amateur 
spies,  and  amateur  spy-hunters.  I  do  not  think  that 
I  have  ever,  since  the  war,  spent  so  many  interesting 
hours  anywhere  as  at  the  Adlon  Hotel,  after  4  p.  m., 
watching  the  various  cliques,  sometimes  par  distance, 
sometimes  at  very  close  quarters. 

A  large  sprinkling  of  officers  is  nearly  always  present. 
Their  tables  occupy  "  strategic  positions  "  in  the  Court. 
Many  of  them  belong  to  the  Intelligence  Department  of 
the  General  Staff.  The  broad  red  braid  on  their 
trousers  inspires,  of  course,  confidence  and  respect. 
The  natural  conclusion  would  be,  at  least  with  neutrals, 
that  a  General  Staff  Officer  is  above  any  description  of 
spying. 

But  beware ! 

With  few  exceptions  every  foreign  journalist,  business 
man,  etc.,  is  an  amateur  spy-hunter.  In  order  to  make 
a  capture  he  will  draw  every  possible  cover,  and  it  will 
not  be  the  fault  of  himself  or  of  his  imagination  if  it  is 
a  blank. 

Everybody  suspects  everybody  else,  and,  under  th* 
guise  of  neutrality,  or  even  by  shamming  anti-Germaa 
sentiments,  they  try  to  draw  you  out. 

The  valet  of  your  floor  knows,  of  course,  every  scrap 

of  paper,  book,  map,  note,  you  have  in  your  possession. 

So  do  the  various   other  secret  agents,  detectives,  at 

whatever  they  may  be  called,  who  rummage   through 

your  luggage  and  open  your  letters,  both  coming  and 

96 


SPIES  AND  SPYING  — III  97 

going.  Police-sergeants  who  want  to  "  inspect  your 
passports  "  are  always  very  early  birds.  Their  visits 
are  unannounced  and  unexpected,  and,  if  you  have  the 
careless  habit  of  sleeping  with  your  door  unlocked  (and 
have  no  dog),  you  may  see  them  sometimes  at  the  foot 
of  your  bed  when  you  wake  up.  "  They  catch  many 
that  way,"  the  manager  of  the  hotel  told  me,  when  J 
complained  about  one  of  these  nocturnal  visits,  as  un^ 
welcome  as  it  was  unexpected. 

Be  careful  of  female  acquaintances  in  Berlin.  If  you 
are  seen  more  than  once  with  the  same  member  of  the 
other  sex,  ten  to  one  she  will  receive  a  visit  from  a 
member  of  the  "  Criminal  Polizei,"  and  it  takes  a  strong- 
kneed  woman  in  Germany  to  be  proof  against  it.  A 
friend  of  mine  had  made  the  acquaintance  of  a  very 
charming  young  German  woman,  the  wife  of  an  officer. 
They  met  on  various  occasions,  and,  sure  enough,  one 
morning,  the  "  Frau  Hauptmann  "  (Mrs.  Captain)  re- 
ceived a  visit  from  the  police-sergeant.  His  clumsy 
attempts  to  hide  the  real  object  of  his  call  failed  la- 
mentably with  the  quick-witted  lady.  When  the  de- 
tective tried  to  make  her  promise  secrecy  she  told  him 
that  she  would  do  nothing  of  the  kind ;  in  fact,  she  told 
him  that  she  could  hardly  wait  to  tell  her  friend  about 
it,  and  actually  went  to  the  telephone  while  the  sergeant 
was  still  in  the  house.  She  asked  our  mutual  friend  to 
come  and  see  her  at  once,  which  he  did.  Her  attempts 
to  make  Mr.  Policeman  wait  were  unsuccessful.  They 
do  not  work  that  way  in  Germany.  They  first  try  to 
intimidate  their  witness,  if  that  proves  necessary.  The 
average  German  is  scared  to  death  of  the  "  Criminal 
Polizei."  In  my  friend's  case  the  lady  was  told  that 
her  foreign  acquaintance  was  suspected  of  being  a  spy. 
'"'Did    she    know    anything    about    him?"    he    asked. 


98  BEHIND  THE  GERMAN  VEIL 

"  Why,  of  course  she  did.  They  used  to  play  together 
at  school,"  etc.  "  Well,  did  he  ever  ask  her  leading 
questions  as  to  where  her  husband  was  and  in  what 
regiment.?  Did  he  never  ask  to  read  any  of  the  letters 
that  came  from  the  front.''  Did  he  seem  interested  in 
the  German  Navy.''  Did  she  know  whether  he  visited 
the  railway  stations.'*  What  was  his  real  business.'* 
Had  he  very  much  money  and  how  did  he  spend  it.'' 
In  short,  could  she  think  of  anything  that  might  in  any 
way  be  regarded  as  suspicious  ?  "     But  she  could  not. 

Not  every  visit  is  as  meagre  in  results  as  the  one 
described  above.  If  your  girl  friend  happens  to  be  in 
a  position  where  she  is  less  independent  than  the  wife  of 
an  oflScer,  for  example,  if  she  is  an  actress,  or,  perhaps, 
a  dancer,  that  is  better  for  the  police.  In  that  case 
it  is  easy  to  enrol  her,  or,  shall  we  say,  "  press  "  her, 
into  the  services  of  the  Vaterland.  Under  dire  menaces, 
nay,  vile  threats,  such  as  being  placed  under  police 
supervision  —  the  most  dreaded  thing  in  Germany  — 
the  girl  is  cross-ex imined,  and  at  the  same  time  ordered 
"Maul  halten  "  ("to  keep  her  mouth  shut")  to  the 
"  Auslander  "  (foreigner).  I  am  writing  here,  in  both 
cases,  of  actual  occurrences. 

Such  an  incident  came  to  my  knowledge  quite  acci- 
dentally. One  afternoon  in  Unter  den  Linden,  I  ran 
into  a  young  German  actress,  whom  I  had  met  a  few 
days  previously.  In  full  daylight  she  was  crying,  the 
tears  streaming  down  her  face.  I  thought  she  had  had 
bad  news  from  the  front,  so  I  stopped  her  and  offered 
whatever  comfort  I  might  be  able  to  give. 

It  was  a  case  of  "  mobilisation,"  but  it  had  nothing 
to  do  with  the  front.  She  had  just  left  the  police- 
station,  where  for  the  last  three  hours  she  had  had  to 


SPIES  AND  SPYING  — III  99 

undergo  the  third  degree  from  A  to  Z.  She  was  abso- 
lutely exhausted,  physically  and  mentally,  and  before 
she  knew  it,  she  had  confided  the  whole  story  to  me. 
The  police  had  called  her  up  the  night  before,  and  told 
her  servant  over  the  'phone  that  the  "  Police  Head- 
quarters Criminal  Department "  was  on  the  wire. 
Thereupon  the  servant  promptly  got  scared,  packed  her 
trunk  and  went  off.  The  next  morning  the  girl  was 
asked  to  come  down  to  the  police-station.  She  thought, 
on  her  way,  that  she  would  drop  in  at  the  hotel  where 
her  friend  lived,  and  tell  him  about  it.  At  the  hotel 
one  of  the  "  friends  "  or  colleagues  of  the  man  saw  her, 
and  evidently  knowing  a  bit  more  about  the  investiga- 
tion on  foot,  promptly  telephoned  to  the  police-station. 
Ten  minutes  later  a  police-sergeant  came  to  the  hotel, 
and  without  much  ceremony  ordered  the  girl  to  come 
with  him  to  the  station.  There  she  was  given  the  third 
degree  unmercifully,  bullied  and  coerced,  and,  finally, 
after  three  hours  set  at  liberty,  but  given  to  understand 
that  she  was  "  mobilised  "  for  Germany. 

A  few  months  in  such  an  atmosphere  and  you  will 
find  yourself  unconsciously  looking  into  the  mirror  and 
beginning  to  wonder  who  you  really  are.  You  almost 
doubt  whether  the  declaration  on  your  passport  that 
"  the  above  photograph  and  signature  are  those  of  the 
bearer,"  is  stating  the  truth. 

The  effect  can  best  be  described  in  the  words  of  my 
dear  old  English  tutor,  who  for  two  years  tried  to  teach 
me  to  pronounce  your  "  th,"  and  then  gave  it  up  in 
despair.  Said  he:  "  Certain  days  with  you  have  an 
effect  upon  my  brain  like  a  kick  in  an  ant-hill."  That's 
about  the  effect  Germany  had  upon  my  mind. 


CHAPTER  XIV 

A    GERMAN    FABLE 

IN  this  chapter  the  title,  like  the  moral,  will  come 
at  the  end. 

It  is  the  translation  of  a  German  pamphlet,  very 
widely  distributed,  especially  in  neutral  countries. 

Once  upon  a  time  there  was  a  very  large  forest, 
wherein  lived  all  sorts  of  animals,  both  of  the  earth  and 
of  the  air.  Although  there  were  many  different  kinds 
and  breeds,  they  lived  in  peace  and  harmony.  This 
story  will  only  deal  with  a  few  of  them,  viz.,  the  Great 
Cock,  the  Little  Cock,  the  Bear,  the  Double-headed 
Eagle,  the  Lion,  and  one  other,  but  about  him  anon. 

As  the  Lion,  owing  to  his  great  strength,  was  looked 
upon  as  the  King  of  Beasts,  he  reigned  supreme  over  all 
the  animals.  The  others  did  not  submit  to  this  ar- 
rangement from  choice,  but  merely  because  they  were 
afraid  of  him. 

One  fine  day,  when  the  Lion  was  meditating  as  to 
whether  the  Bear  was  not  becoming  too  powerful,  the 
Great  Cock  appeared  in  his  den.  He  looked  very  dis- 
hevelled and  knocked  about.  Several  of  his  feathers 
had  been  pulled  out,  and  he  was  bleeding  badly. 

"What  has  happened  to  you?"  grunted  the  King, 
who  hated  being  disturbed.  "  I  have  just  had  a  fight 
with  a  Young  Eagle,"  replied  the  Big  Cock  feebly,  "  and 
he  almost  killed  me.  If  you  want  to  retain  your  king- 
ship, you  had  better  watch  him,  because  verily  I  believe 
that  before  long  he  will  be  as  strong,  if  not  stronger, 
than  you  are." 

100 


A  GERMAN  FABLE  101 

"  Impossible !  "  howled  the  Lion.  "  I  have  never  even 
noticed  the  Young  Eagle  .  .  ." 

"  Neither  had  I  until  to-day,"  retorted  the  Big  Cock> 
a,s  he  slowly  and  sadly  limped  off. 

The  Lion  returned  to  his  meditations  and  swore  a 
speedy  revenge.  But,  strange  to  say,  since  that  very 
day,  the  Young  Eagle  seemed  to  cross  his  path  wherever 
he  went.  When  he  visited  his  favourite  feeding-grounds, 
he  found  that  the  Young  Eagle  had  been  there  before 
him.  When  he  tried  to  take  a  well-earned  rest  and 
enjoy  a  sun-bath,  a  big  shadow  robbed  hira  of  the  sun- 
light, and,  looking  up,  he  invariably  discovered  the 
Eagle.  It  seemed  to  the  mighty  monarch  as  if  the 
Eagle  had  found  out  all  his  favourite  nooks  and  corners 
of  the  forest.  The  worst  of  it  was  that  he  could  fly, 
while  the  fat  Lion  could  hardly  drag  himself  from  his 
couch.  In  spite  of  his  enormous  size  and  strength  the 
Lion  was  a  coward ;  he  was  afraid  to  attack  the  great 
bird  single-handed.  So  he  began  to  plot.  He  decided 
that  all  the  inhabitants  of  the  forest  should  unite  to  kill 
the  interloper  and  usurper. 

He  carefully  worked  out  his  plans  and  then  addressed 
the  Big  Cock :  "  The  Eagle  has  done  you  a  great 
wrong,  therefore  you  must  revenge  yourself."  "  But," 
objected  the  Cock,  "  he  beat  me  before,  he'll  probably 
beat  me  again." 

"  No,  he  will  not,  not  this  time,"  replied  the  Lion, 
"  because  /  am  going  to  help  you,  and  between  the  two 
of  us  we  will  soon  finish  him  off." 

"  Oh,  that  is  different,"  crowed  the  Cock ;  "  that  will 
be  fine.  I  shall  start  at  once  to  make  the  necessary 
preparations  to  attack  him." 

Then  the  Lion  visited  his  friend  (?)  the  Bear. 

"  Have  you  heard  about  this  disgusting  Young 
Eagle?  "  he  inquired.     "  I  understand  he  is  stirring  and 


102  BEHIND  THE  GERMAN  VEIL 

plotting  all  kinds  of  crimes  agcainst  you.  He  intends 
to  steal  your  food  and  your  best  lairs  in  different  parts 
of  the  forest." 

"  You  don't  say  so,"  growled  the  Bear.  "  I  have  not 
noticed  anything,  but,  of  course,  if  you  say  so,  it  must 
be  true.     But  how  can  I  stop  him.''  " 

"  By  fighting  him,"  counselled  the  Lion. 

"  Single-handed?  "  inquired  the  Bear. 

"  Of  course  not,"  sniffed  the  Monarch.  "  /  shall  be 
with  you,  and  the  Big  Cock  will  help,  too." 

"  But  how  are  we  going  to  entice  him  on  to  solid 
earth?  "  queried  the  Bear,  somewhat  confused. 

"  That  is  quite  simple.  I  have  arranged  all  that," 
explained  the  Lion.  "  You  must  attack  the  Double- 
headed  Eagle,  and,  as  the  Young  Eagle  loves  him,  he 
will  at  once  come  to  his  assistance." 

"  Good !  "  exclaimed  the  Bear  enthusiastically ;  but 
after  a  few  moments'  reflection  he  asked :  "  But  what 
are  the  other  animals  of  the  forest  going  to  think  when 
the  three  of  us  fall  upon  the  Young  Eagle?  " 

"  Hm,  that  is  true,"  acquiesced  the  Lion.  "  We  must 
try  and  find  some  excuse."  And,  rising,  he  angrily 
shook  his  mane  and  beat  his  tail.  "  I  have  it,"  he  sud- 
denly growled.  "  The  Big  Cock  will  challenge  the 
Young  Eagle.  He  knows  I  am  going  to  help  him. 
Well,  the  Young  Eagle  cannot  reach  the  Cock  without 
flj'ing  over  the  establishment  of  the  Cockerel.  That 
will  give  us  suflScient  excuse  to  fall  upon  the  Young 
Eagle." 

"  How  clever,  how  very  clever  you  are !  "  growled  the 
Bear.     "  I  shall  of  course  do  as  you  advise." 

The  Lion  left  quite  satisfied.  "  One  more  call,"  he 
reflected,  "  and  then  I  can  go  to  sleep  again."  His  last 
visit  was  to  the  Cockerel. 

"  I  have  just  had  some  dreadful  news,"  he  cried  out 


A  GERMAN  FABLE  103 

on  meeting  the  Cockerel.  "  Before  you  are  many  days 
older,  the  Young  Eagle  will  try  to  fly  into  your  little 
kingdom  and  take  possession  of  it.  You  must  oppose 
with  all  your  power  this  sinful  act." 

"  But  how,"  the  Little  Cock  wanted  to  know,  "  am  I 
going  to  stop  the  flight  of  an  Eagle?  " 

"  /  shall  be  there  to  help  you,"  said  the  Lion  mag- 
nanimously. 

"  Very  good,"  said  the  Cockerel ;  "  then  of  course  I 
shall  do  as  you  advise."  And  he  hopped  away  to  pre- 
pare for  the  fray. 

When,  shortly  afterwards,  the  Lion,  from  his  safe 
hiding-place,  noticed  a  large  black  spot  in  the  sky, 
coming  nearer  and  nearer  to  the  forest  kingdoms,  he 
smiled  contentedly,  curled  himself  up,  and  went  to  sleep. 

In  the  meantime  the  Bear  attacked  the  Double-headed 
Eagle,  and  the  Big  Cock  crowed  about  the  "  insults  " 
it  had  suff'ered  from  the  Young  Eagle.  The  latter,  to 
silence  him,  went  to  call  on  the  Cock.  But  to  be  able 
to  reach  him,  he  had  to  fly  over  the  State  of  the  Cock- 
erel. The  little  fellow  bravely  resisted  the  Eagle's  ad- 
vance, but  with  one  stroke  of  his  big  wings  the  King 
of  Birds  smashed  him  to  earth.  Then  the  Cockerel 
began  to  shout  for  the  Lion. 

The  Lion  murmured  something  like :  "  I  declare  war 
on  the  Eagle,"  then  turned  round  and  prepared  to  go 
to  sleep  again. 

"  But  I  need  your  help  at  once,"  moaned  the  Cockerel. 

"  The  Big  Cock  and  the  Bear  will  help  you.  The 
Eagle  will  soon  be  annihilated,"  comforted  the  Lion. 

The  next  message  that  disturbed  his  slumbers  came 
from  the  Big  Cock :  "  I  need  your  help,"  it  said ;  "  the 
Cockerel  has  been  killed,  and  the  Bear  has  a  very  sore 
head." 

"  I'll  soon  be  with  you,"  replied  the  Lion.     "  What  a 


104  BEHIND  THE  GERMAN  VEIL 

lot  of  idiots  you  are,  after  all  my  good  advice,  not  to  be 
able  to  kill  that  Young  Eagle."  But  when  he  was  en- 
tirely awake  he  was  much  taken  aback  at  the  turn  of 
affairs,  and  prepared  to  hide  himself  in  the  depths  of 
the  forest.  Then  came  the  third  message,  from  the 
Bear  this  time. 

"  I  am  so  knocked  about  and  bleeding  that  I  cannot 
continue  the  fight,"  he  said.  "  You  must  protect  your 
own  camp." 

Then  the  Lion  called  on  all  the  animals  of  the  forest : 
"  The  Eagle  is  attacking  us  all  and  will  steal  the  prop- 
erty of  every  animal  on  earth  and  in  the  air.  Come, 
every  one  of  you,  and  fight  for  your  forest.  Come  and 
let  us  kill  the  Eagle." 

But  only  the  deadly  silence  of  the  forest  answered 
him.  Shaking  with  fear,  the  Lion  ran,  and  dived  deep 
into  the  woods.  But  he  could  not  escape  the  Young 
Eagle,  who  pursued  and  killed  him. 

Then  all  the  other  animals  of  the  forest  reappeared 
and  shouted : 

"  The  King  is  dead !     Long  live  the  King !  " 

In  the  market-place  of  a  certain  town  are  offered  for 
sale  a  lion-skin,  a  bear-skin,  a  handful  of  cock-feathers 
and  a  dead  cockerel. 

The  tyranny  of  the  Lion  is  no  more. 

Free  over  hill  and  dale,  over  town  and  country,  in  the 
blue  ether  of  the  Universe,  the  Great  Eagle  now  flies 
and  reigns  supreme. 

And  the  name  of  the  story:  "  Eine  Fabel "  ("A 
Fairy  Tale  "—  a  fable). 

One  would  almost  give  the  author  credit  for  a  sense  of 
humour.  Only  this  is  of  the  peculiar  kind  that  acts 
like  a  boomerang. 


CHAPTER  XV 

GERMAN    WOMEN 

"  IVr^^^^^^^"^^^^  °^  ^^^  kitchen."  Since  the  Crown 
lyji  Princess  coined  this  expression  the  term  has  be- 
come a  regular  German  watchword.  Woe  betide  the 
woman  who  has  not  answered  the  call  to  the  kitchen 
or  to  the  hospital,  as  the  case  may  be. 

One  of  the  first  things  I  noticed  in  Berlin  was  the  en- 
tire absence  of  ladies  —  using  the  term  here  in  its  nar- 
rower social  sense  —  in  public  places.  Every  after- 
noon Berlin  used  to  take  tea  at  the  various  large  hotels 
—  the  "Kaiserhof,"  the  "  Adlon,"  the  "Esplanade," 
etc.  To-day  these  places  are  crowded  with  officers, 
both  in  uniform  and  in  mufti,  and  many  of  them  are 
accompanied  by  women  of  another  kind.  In  days  be- 
fore the  war  no  officer  ventured  to  appear  in  public 
with  a  lady  who  was  not  what  is  called  "  Gesellschafts- 
fiihig  "  (which  may  be  translated,  "fit  for  society"); 
but  now  the  barriers  are  down.  I  was  having  tea  one 
afternoon  at  the  "  Kaiserhof  "  with  a  captain  of  the 
War  Office  Staff,  and  I  asked  him,  "  Will  you  tell  me 
where  all  your  ladies  are?  I  mean,  where  is  Society?  " 
He  looked  at  me  with  surprise.  "  Why,"  he  answered, 
"  don't  you  know  that  all  our  women,  our  real  German 
women,  are  mobilised  as  well  as  our  men?  These  are  the 
days  when  the  girls  who  have  had  a  practical  '  Haus- 
frau '  education  are  having  their  innings.  We  need 
the  housekeeper  and  the  nurse  nowadays,  not  the  Frau- 
lein  professor,  doctor,  advocate,  or  what  not." 

He  was  absolutely  right,  as  I  found  out  later.     At  the 

outbreak  of  war  a  great  many  women  and  girls  with 

105 


106  BEHIND  THE  GERMAN  VEIL 

university  degrees,  stenographers,  book-keepers,  etc., 
working  in  offices,  thought  that  at  last  their  chance  had 
come.  They  were  going  to  show  that  they  could  re- 
place the  men  at  the  heads  of  departments,  or  at  what- 
ever responsible  duty  might  have  to  be  performed. 
Most  of  them  were  sadly  disappointed.  In  the  larger 
offices  the  heads  of  firms  —  if  they  were  not  called  to 
the  colours  —  replaced  their  own  managers,  working 
double  time ;  the  staffs  were  cut  down  to  half,  and  so 
were  the  salaries.  The  "  modern  "  German  girl,  who 
used  to  turn  up  her  nose  at  the  "  mother's-help  "  sort 
of  education,  is  the  one  who  finds  herself  in  dire  straits 
now. 

The  local  administrative  authorities  are  everywhere 
calling  on  the  women  for  advice  in  matters  in  which 
women  are  —  or  should  be  —  experts :  house-keeping, 
catering  for  the  wounded,  nursing,  the  running  of  large 
kitchens  for  the  poor,  the  opening  of  canteens  at  sta- 
tions along  the  main  lines  where  the  troop  trains  pass. 
They  are  asked  to  direct  sewing  classes,  to  supervise 
the  mending  of  uniforms  and  other  wearing  apparel.* 
They  are  expected  to  help  by  exercising  economy  in  the 
use  and  distribution  of  food.  Professors  of  chemistry 
give  special  lectures  all  over  the  country  to  teach 
women  the  food  value  of  every  article  of  diet.  In  short, 
the  demand  for  "  Hausfrauen  "  in  well-nigh  as  large  as 
that  for  soldiers. 

A  number  of  women's  clubs  have  been  organised  for 
the  purpose  of  helping  those  employed  in  the  musical 
profession,  which  is  suffering  greatly  through  the  war. 
A  large  hall  in  the  Reichstag  building  has  been  placed 
at  the  disposal  of  these  clubs,  and  there  they  meet, 
sometimes  two  or  three  of  them  in  the  day.  The  women 
mombers  pay  a  contribution  of  something  like  ten  shil- 
lings a  month,  and,  of  course,  donations  are  gladly  ac- 


GERMAN  WOMEN  107 

cepted.  Out  of  these  funds  the  artists  are  paid.  I 
have  fjorgotten  the  figures  shown  me,  but  there  are  thou- 
sands of  women  in  Berlin  who  have  joined  these  clubs. 

Some  of  the  concerts  take  place  at  private  houses, 
and  the  rule  has  been  made  that  absolutely  no  refresh- 
ments shall  be  served  on  such  occasions  except  to  the 
artists !  The  women  sit  from  three  to  six,  knitting, 
talking,  or  listening  to  the  music.  For  any  one  who 
knows  Germany  and  the  German  woman's  love  for  her 
"  Kaffeeklatsch,"  which  used  to  be  unthinkable  without 
cake,  coffee  and  whipped  cream,  this  is  one  of  the  most 
remarkable  effects  of  the  war.  I  never  thought  that 
anything  in  the  world  could  keep  a  German  woman 
separated  from  "  Kaffee  und  Kuchen  "  at  four  o'clock. 

At  whatever  small  entertainments  are  given,  war 
poetry  and  "  Foldpost-Briefe  "  (letters  from  the  front) 
are  the  most  popular  items  on  the  programme.  The 
war  has  hatched  an  entire  new  brood  of  poets  and  writ- 
ers, and  the  professors  are  having  the  time  of  their 
lives.  I  have  never  seen  such  a  mass  of  topical  litera- 
ture, pamphlets,  war  novels,  etc.^  of  every  sort  and  de- 
scription anywhere. 

I  had  a  long  talk  one  day  with  Baroness  von  Below, 
the  American  wife  of  the  well-known  German  General. 
She  is  taking  cooking  lessons  now,  so  that  she  may  be 
able  to  do  her  share.  "  Germany  was  morally  on  the 
decline  before  the  war,"  she  told  me.  "  The  hunt  after 
pleasure  and  novelty  was  beginning  to  resemble  what 
you  find  in  the  American  multi-millionaire  class.  The 
good  old  German  family  life  was  fast  becoming  out  of 
date  among  the  younger  generation.  Now  see  what  a 
change!  The  little  housekeeper,  whose  horizon  never 
extended  beyond  her  kitchen  and  larder,  has  now  be- 
come —  wonder   of   wonders !  —  one   of   the   most   im- 


108  BEHIND  THE  GERMAN  VEIL 

portant  members  of  this  great  organisation.  The 
much-ridiculed  '  Hausfrau '  has  been  victorious  all 
along  the  line ;  she  is  the  strongest  ally  of  her  husband 
in  the  field.  Another  thing  this  war  is  teaching  us, 
though,  is  that  a  political  education  is  quite  as  necessary 
for  women  as  for  men.  This  war  is  going  to  revolu- 
tionise the  position  of  women  in  this  country,  if  not 
throughout  the  world." 

So  said  the  General's  wife ;  and  every  German-born 
woman  with  whom  I  spoke  voiced  the  same  opinions. 
I  went  to  dinner  one  night  at  the  house  of  Professor 
Archenhold,  the  director  of  the  Treptow  Observatory, 
near  Berlin.  His  wife  had  organised  cinema  lectures 
in  one  of  the  halls  of  the  building  for  wounded  soldiers, 
and  for  the  women  and  children  of  the  neighbourhood. 
The  particular  quarter  in  Avhich  the  Observatory  stands 
has  a  large  Socialist  element,  and  the  Frau  Professor 
fraternises  with  them  many  hotirs  a  day.  I  met  some 
of  the  women  and  talked  to  them.  One  of  them  said 
to  me:  "I  have  had  a  letter  from  my  husband  (in 
France)  telling  me  not  to  send  him  so  many  things,  as 
they  are  so  well  taken  care  of.  Every  two  weeks  he 
sends  me  some  of  his  pay,  and  I  am  happy  to  say  that 
I  can  now  write  back  to  him  in  the  same  way,  telling 
him  that  he  need  not  send  us  any  money,  as  the  people 
here  are  taking  such  splendid  care  of  us." 

Frau  Professor  Archenhold  impresses  it  upon  them 
that  they  should  write  nothing  but  cheerful,  pleasant 
letters  to  their  husbands  in  the  field,  and  not  bother 
them  with  tiresome  details  of  difficulties  at  home. 
Whether  such  lectures  or  advice  are  inspired  from 
"  higher  up,"  I  cannot  say ;  but  I  know  that  many  of 
the  better-class  women  talk  to  the  working  classes  in 
that  strain. 


GERMAN  WOMEN  109 

The  big  shops  do  a  tremendous  business  in  "  field-post 
parcels."  Anything  up  to  fifty  grammes  can  be  sent 
post  free,  up  to  five  hundred  grammes  (about  one 
pound)  a  parcel  costs  ten  pfennigs  (one-tenth  of  a  shil- 
ling). He  must  be  a  very  friendless  soul,  indeed,  in  the 
trenches  who  does  not  receive  his  weekly  share  of  such 
packages.  In  every  family  where  I  have  been  I  found 
everybody,  young  and  old,  packing,  addressing  and 
sending  all  sorts  of  things  to  the  front.  And  it  was 
not  Christmas-time,  either!  During  my  tour  through 
the  Eastern  part  of  Germany  we  passed  trainload  after 
trainload,  all  marked  "  Liebesgaben  "  ("love-gifts"), 
and  one  of  Hindcnburg's  adjutants  told  me  that  the 
gifts  of  woollen  things  had  been  so  numerous  that  the 
soldiers  were  simply  swamped  with  them.  It  was  a 
standing  joke  in  Hindenburg's  army  that  nobody  could 
get  a  bar  of  chocolate  without  agreeing  to  take  a  pair 
of  socks  as  well. 

As  regards  the  efiiciency  of  the  "  Field-post,"  a  good 
story  is  being  told  against  the  Postmaster-General,  or 
whatever  his  title  is.  When  the  Kaiser  returned  from 
the  front  —  last  February  —  he  met  that  eminent  of- 
ficial, and  exclaimed  with  great  surprise :     "  But  Herr 

,  where  is  your  Iron  Cross  ?  "     The  official  seemed 

as  much  surprised  as  the  Kaiser,  and  explained  that  he 
never  had  one.  "  Well,  probably  it  was  delayed,"  re- 
marked the  Kaiser.  "  I  sent  it  to  you,  by  parcel  post, 
from  the  front  —  as  a  Christmas  present." 

Running  all  through  the  life  of  those  remaining  at 
home,  both  men  and  women,  is  the  constant  anxiety 
"  to  keep  up  appearances."  It  seems  to  me  to  be  the 
keynote  of  German  life  to-day,  and  one  of  its  weak- 
nesses.    It  makes  it  extremely  diflScult  to  obtain  any 


110  BEHIND  THE  GERMAN  VEIL 

real  insight  into  conditions.  One  has  to  be  very  cir- 
cumspect when  making  inquiries.  I  heard  one  man  say 
to  an  American  journalist,  who  seemed  to  him  to  be  get- 
ting too  inquisitive :  "  Well,  if  you  want  to  learn  se- 
crets, you  had  better  go  to  the  General  Staff.  I  am 
sure  they  will  be  delighted  to  show  and  tell  you  every- 
thing," To  refer  you  to  the  War  Office  or  the  General 
Staff  is  an  easy  habit  many  people  have  acquired ;  as  a 
rule,  it  means  that  they  are  not  going  to  satisfy  vulgar 
foreign  curiosity. 

Most  of  the  theatres  are  open  in  Berlin,  but  that  also 
is  more  to  keep  up  appearances  than  for  business  pur- 
poses. The  salary  of  every  actor  and  actress  has  been 
cut  do^vn  to  a  half,  sometimes  to  one-third.  Dancers 
and  members  of  the  chorus  receive  an  average  of  three 
pounds  a  month.  At  the  department  stores  conditions 
are  worse.  Most  of  the  girls  in  the  stores  of  Wert- 
heimer  and  Tietz,  and  in  the  "  Kaufhaus  des  Westens," 
earn  from  ten  to  twelve  shillings  a  week.  The  inade- 
quate pay  of  so  many  women  workers  has  had  its  in- 
evitable effect  on  morals.  The  combined  influences  of 
poverty,  temptation,  and  the  nervous  strain  of  war- 
time, have  proved  too  much  for  many  an  unhappy  girl. 

To  find  out  the  spirit  of  the  women  of  the  middle 
classes,  I  jestingly  asked  some  of  them  whether  the 
Government  had  made  any  arrangements  as  to  their 
conduct  in  case  of  invasion.  "  We  don't  need  the  Gov- 
ernment to  tell  us  what  to  do,"  was  the  reply.  "  If  any 
Englishman  fried  to  get  into  Berlin,  or,  for  that  matter, 
into  any  other  German  city,  we'd  scratch  his  eyes  out." 
"And  what  about  the  French?"  I  inquired.  "Oh!" 
came  the  answer,  with  a  shrug  of  the  shoulders,  "  they 
are  harmless  little  fellows." 

One  evening,  about  eleven,  the  wife  of  a  higher  Ger- 


GERMAN  WOMEN  111 

man  oflBcer  called  me  up  on  the  telephone ;  she  seemed  to 
be  in  a  great  state  of  mind.  "  I  am  in  awful  trouble," 
she  explained,  "  I  don't  know  where  my  husband  is,  or 
rather  I  do  know,  but  I  can't  find  the  place  on  the  map. 
Do  tell  me  where  it  is !  "  And  then  she  began  to  spell 
some  name  that  sounded  like  a  combination  of  Przemysl, 
and  some  of  your  Welsh  names.  I  could  not  make  it 
out.  The  only  thing  was  to  taxi  up  to  her  house  and 
help  in  the  search,  which  I  did.  After  half  an  hour  we 
found  it.  The  name  of  the  place  was  "  Mntereczerem  " 
(spelling  guaranteed);  it  is  situated  about  ten  miles 
north-west  of  Nicolaiken,  in  East  Prussia.  She  was 
greatly  relieved  (and  so  was  I).  The  same  lady  some 
time  ago  travelled  a  day  and  a  night,  in  slow  trains, 
in  order  to  catch  a  glimpse  of  her  husband  at  one  of  the 
stations  where  he  had  to  change.  She  saw  him  there 
for  about  half  an  hour.  I  know  that  a  great  many 
women  are  doing  —  or  rather  did  —  the  same.  The 
Government  soon  stopped  this  practice,  as  it  gave  an 
indication  of  the  place  to  which  troops  were  going,  and 
the  information  might  reach  the  enemy. 

In  every  public  place  all  over  the  country  notices  are 
posted  warning  every  German,  whether  soldier  or  ci- 
vilian, man  or  woman,  against  discussing  their  relatives' 
whereabouts,  their  letters,  plans,  etc.,  because  —  so  it 
runs  — "  spies  of  both  sexes  mingle  freely  amongst  the 
public,  and  the  most  innocent  remark,  the  merest  sug- 
gestion, which  might  seem  quite  harmless  to  any  of  you, 
may  cause  the  death  of  thousands  of  our  soldiers." 

It  struck  me  very  forcibly  how  almost  fanatically 
pro-German  English  and  American  women,  married  to 
Germans,  have  become.  All  are  thorough  converts  to 
the  German  cause.  I  am  aware  of  several  instances 
from  personal  knowledge. 


112  BEHIND  THE  GERMAN  VEIL 

There  is,  for  example,  the  American  Baroness  von 
Below  mentioned  above.  (Her  husband.  General  von 
Below,  successfully  conducted  several  important  oper- 
ations in  Poland.)  Her  outgoing  mail  every  week  runs 
into  hundreds  of  letters,  mostly  to  America.  The  ma- 
jority of  them  are  written  by  her  personally. 

"  I  try  to  write  ten  letters  every  day,  explaining  the 
German  cause  to  my  friends  at  home,"  she  told  me, 
"  It  is  the  least  we  women  can  do,  while  our  husbands 
are  daily  risking  their  lives." 

At  Munich  I  met  an  old  friend,  also  an  American  lady, 
who  a  few  years  ago  married  General  Baron  von  Nagel, 
now  chief  of  the  Bavarian  General  Staff.  For  hours 
and  hours  we  argued,  and  it  was  not  her  fault  that  I  did 
not  entirely  change  my  mind  about  Germany's  position 
in  this  war,  and  her  share  in  its  origin.  She  and  her 
mother,  also  American  by  birth,  but  married  to  the 
Bavarian  Count  Frohberg,  conducted  a  regular  private 
Press  bureau,  employing  something  like  ten  girl  ste- 
nographers and  typewriters.  I  was  inundated  with 
their  typewritten  articles.  One  of  them  begins :  "  Has 
England  hypnotised  America.''"  Another  one  starts 
with  the  query :  "  Is  Germany  a  greater  menace  to  the 
world's  peace  than  England,  this  lost  tribe  of  Israel, 
wnose  hatred  of  the  whole  world  is  proverbial  .J*  "  And 
again,  in  another  one  I  read :  "  England  hates  Amer- 
ica. She  despises  France.  The  English  occupation  of 
Egypt  and  the  Fashoda  affair  were  not  calculated  to 
draw  England  closer  to  France.  Russia  is  the  bete 
noire  of  England."  One  of  the  articles,  for  American 
consumption  of  course,  speaks  of  a  cable  sent  by  Eng- 
land to  Japan,  thanking  her  for  her  aid  in  sinking  the 
German  ships  off  the  Falkland  Islands,  "  Forty-three 
ships  against  five !  And  they  rang  their  bells  and  hung 
out  their  flags,  for  it  was  a  famous  victory ! " 


GERMAN  WOMEN  113 

The  conclusion,  though,  of  most  of  such  diatribes  lets 
the  cat  out  of  the  bag: 

"  To  starve  Germany,  to  make  her  a  pariah  among 
nations,  what  a  crime  against  civilisation !  America 
can  stop  this  terrible  ^ar  by  refusing  to  sell  arms  to  the 
belligerents,  and  by  not  assisting  England  to  paralyse 
the  world's  commerce.  Is  there  no  Great  Physician 
who  can  heal  this  malady  of  nations,  and  stop  the  de- 
population of  Germany,  England  and  France?  " 

I  have  quoted  from  a  few  of  these  writings  to  show 
how  thoroughly  the  German  atmosphere  does  its  work, 
and  with  what  eager  enthusiasm  foreign-born  women  in 
Germany  have  taken  up  her  cause.  These  examples  are 
by  no  means  the  exception,  they  are  the  rule. 

At  the  house  of  a  well-known  German  official,  I  met 
a  lady  who  had  recently  lost  her  son.  With  great  pride 
she  passed  round,  for  general  perusal,  a  letter  received 
from  his  captain.  I  wanted,  discreetly,  to  pass  it  on 
when  it  reached  me,  but  was  urged  to  read  it.  It  was 
an  interesting  epistle,  and  the  conclusion  was  very 
characteristic  of  the  curiously  mixed  German  tempera- 
ment. 

The  captain's  letter  ended  with: 

"  I  laid  the  photograph  of  his  fiancee  and  some  flow- 
ers on  his  heart  before  we  closed  the  grave." 

It  was  what  she  described  as  a  "  divine  "  and  glorious 
account,  and  I  am  sure  it  afforded  much  comfort  to  the 
otherwise  heart-broken  mother. 

I  think  "  complex  "  is  a  very  mild  description  of  the 
German  character. 

Speaking  about  letters  reminds  me  of  a  very  grim 
story  about  a  certain  epistle,  alleged  to  have  been  writ- 
ten by  a  German  nurse  to  the  mother  of  a  French 
wounded  soldier.     The  copy  that  was  shown  me  read: 


114  BEHIND  THE  GERMAN  VEIL 

"  Berlin.  .  .  . 

"  Madame, 

"  Your  son  is  seriously  wounded,  and  is  in  a 
critical  condition.  His  life  depends  entirely  on  my 
care. 

"  While  attending  him  my  mind  runs  back  to  a  battle- 
field somewhere  in  France.  My  own  son,  slightly 
wounded,  was  lying  there,  but  instead  of  being  nursed 
and  cared  for  as  your  son  is  at  present,  he  was  killed 
by  a  revolver  bullet  from  one  of  your  cowardly  com- 
patriots, perhaps  even  by  the  very  man  now  under  my 
care.  I  am  not  a  saint,  I  am  only  human.  I  want  to 
revenge  my  dead  son.  It  is  easy.  To-night  an  over- 
dose of  morphia  will  do  justice  for  the  death  of  my  boy. 
I  am  sending  you  enclosed  your  son's  last  good-bye. 

"M.  W. 

"  Red  Cross  Nurse. 

"  P.S. —  Madame,  your  son  is  safe.  He  will  be  well 
within  two  weeks.  I  have  merely  wanted  to  make  you 
live  for  a  minute  the  long  hours  of  inconsolable  mourn- 
ing which  will  now  be  my  life." 


CHAPTER  XVI 

HUNTING    WITH    THE    CAMERA 

IT  will  seem  strange,  but  it  is  a  fact,  that  the  man 
with  a  camera  in  the  German  lines  is  not  treated 
half  as  badly  as  he  is  on  allied  territory.  In  France  he 
is  looked  on  as  a  dangerous  criminal,  and  degenerates 
into  a  hunted  pariah.  (I  am  speaking  from  personal 
knowledge  on  both  fronts.) 

In  Germany,  if  you  have  a  permit,  which  is  not  at  all 
diiBcult  to  obtain  if  you  represent  a  neutral  paper,  you 
can  practically  photograph  any  one  or  anything  — 
with  two  notable  exceptions.  Anything  connected  with 
the  Navy  or  with  Zeppelins  is  taboo.  You  must  not 
show  a  camera  anywhere  near  the  North  Sea  coast,  the 
naval  bases,  or  the  Kiel  Canal.  If  you  have  no  permit, 
as  was  my  sad  case,  the  best  thing  is  to  act  as  if  you 
had  one,  and  it  is  a  hundred  to  one  that  nobody  will 
bother  you. 

From  the  oldest  General  —  not  even  excepting  Hin- 
denburg  —  to  the  youngest  recruit,  all  soldiers  dearly 
love  to  have  their  pictures  taken.  If  the  photographer 
happens  to  be  a  neutral,  so  much  the  better.  In  that 
case  they  combine  duty  and  patriotism  with  pleasure. 
Because  surely  any  photograph  of  the  German  Army 
must  impress  neutral  countries  with  Germany's  invinci- 
bility. 

My  harvest  of  snapshots  was  prolific.  It  would  have 
needed  a  wagon-load  of  films  to  take  all  the  scenes  I 
was  invited  to  immortalise.  Every  one  you  came  in 
contact    with    had    something    "  sehr    interessant,"    a 

115 


116  BEHIND  THE  GERMAN  VEIL 

"  priceless  "  study  to  show  you.  Of  course,  nine  times 
out  of  ten  his  own  effigy  was  included. 

I  soon  found  that  I  would  have  to  husband  my  re- 
serve of  films,  so,  for  every  real  photograph  I  took,  I 
"  snapshotted  "  at  least  ten  others  —  in  theory  !  I  got 
quite  expert  in  going  through  the  feint  of  focussing, 
setting,  snapping  the  camera  and  turning  the  film.  The 
plains  of  Poland  are  strewn  with  cards  and  addresses 
of  soldiers  and  officers,  who  think  they  have  been  photo- 
graphed, and  are  still  waiting  (and,  I  fear,  will  con- 
tinue to  do  so)  for  the  "  proofs." 

But  I  will  say  they  were  a  most  obliging  lot.  Pris- 
oners or  transports  were  halted;  guns  were  placed  in 
position ;  travelling  field-kitchens  or  bakeries  were 
laboriously  turned  to  the  right  side  of  the  sun  (if  any)  ; 
market-places  were  cleared  of  uninteresting  civilians ; 
shells  were  taken  from  their  baskets ;  and  one  most 
obliging  officer  even  went  so  far  as  to  fire  a  few  rounds 
of  the  field-gun  (77),  so  as  to  enable  me  to  photograph 
it  "  in  action."  Curiously  enough,  the  pose  he  assumed 
betokened  a  greater  affection  for  the  camera  than  for 
the  gun ! 

I  photographed  a  spy,  a  Polish  Jew,  who  had  been 
caught  cutting  the  telephone  wires  to  headquarters.  I 
did  not  mean  to,  but,  absent-mindedly,  I  went  through 
the  real  manipulations  instead  of  the  sham  ones.  They 
suggested  I  should  photograph  him  while  being  shot ; 
but  I  drew  the  line  at  that,  I  am  sure  greatly  to  the 
disappointment  of  the  officer  commanding  the  firing- 
squad. 

Then  there  was  the  meeting  between  the  German  Em- 
peror and  the  Crown  Prince  near  Longwy.  I  photo- 
graphed them  both,  a  somewhat  foolhardy  thing  to  do, 
considering  that  I  had  no  permit !  Father  and  son  were 
standing    together    watching    some    French    prisoners 


HUNTING  WITH  THE  CAMERA         117 

march  past.  From  where  I  stood  I  had  quite  a  good 
view  of  my  royal  quarry,  but  I  was  anxious  to  get  the 
Crown  Prince's  very  intellectual  profile.  I  flatter  my- 
self I  succeeded  very  fairly  well.  But,  as  the  shutter 
clicked,  the  Crown  Prince  started,  and,  pointing  his 
riding-whip  at  me,  shouted:  "Who  is  that?"  My 
escort,  a  Colonel,  who,  of  course,  took  it  for  granted 
that  I  had  a  permit,  sprang  to  attention,  and  explained 
that  I  was  a  distinguished  neutral  journalist,  and  a  per- 
gonal acquaintance  of  General  Baron  von  Nagel.^ 

Though  I  knew  I  was  perfectly  safe  —  the  Colonel 
was  responsible  for  my  being  there,  and,  naturall}',  he 
was  not  going  to  minimise  my  importance  —  I  will  ad- 
mit that  I  had  that  peculiar  feeling  down  my  spine 
which  makes  you  wonder  "  what  is  going  to  happen 
next." 

It  was  by  no  means  always  plain  sailing.  It  is  an 
old  but  tried  truism  that  if  you  don't  have  a  set-back 
now  and  again,  you  begin  to  think  that  the  world  was 
built  for  your  private  amusement.  I  very  nearly 
landed  in  prison  for  photographing  a  couple  of  Zeppe- 
lins. All  my  films  were  confiscated  except  one,  an  un- 
exposed roll.  But  I  managed,  after  the  rolls  had  been 
counted,  to  substitute  that  one  for  an  exposed  film,  and 
in  that  way  saved  a  few  Zeppelin  pictures. 

All  persons  who  have  taken  photographs  or  moving 
pictures  anywhere  within  the  war  zones  must  have  three 
sets  printed,  and  submit  these  to  the  Photograph  Censor 
Department    of    the    Great    General    Staff    in    Berlin. 

1  General  von  Nagel  was  at  that  time  chief  of  the  Bavarian 
General  Staff.  Some  eight  years  ago  I  used  to  know  his  wife,  an 
American  lady,  very  well,  and  she  kindly  gave  me  a  letter  of  in- 
troduction to  her  husband.  I  had  not  met  him  at  the  time;  in 
fact,  some  hitches  in  my  progress,  which  necessitated  a  sudden 
change  of  climate,  prevented  me  from  presenting  that  letter,  and, 
alas !  a  great  many  others. 


118  BEHIND  THE  GERMAN  VEIL 

There  they  are  inspected  and  stamped,  and  either  passed 
for  publication  or  refused.  An  interesting  item  of  this 
department  is  that  the  head  of  it  is  also  the  senior  part- 
ner of  one  of  the  largest  cinema  companies  in  Berlin, 
Messrs.  Messter  &  Co.  On  the  official  instructions  you 
receive,  that  firm  is  recommended  for  developing  your 
films  and  plates.  Herr  Messter,  through  his  position 
on  the  General  Staff,  is  able  to  obtain  free  of  charge 
for  his  firm  —  and  makes  a  point  of  doing  so  —  copies 
of  all  photographs  and  films  obtained  by  neutral  pho- 
tographers. 

Just  to  annoy  Herr  Messter,  I  took  this  matter  up, 
acting  on  behalf  of  an  American  cinema  operator.  I 
claimed  that  that  man  ought  to  receive  a  certain  per- 
centage of  the  proceeds  derived  by  Messrs.  Messter  & 
Co.  from  the  sale  of  his  films  to  German  users.  The 
answer  was  that  the  films  taken  by  neutral  photogra- 
phers are  only  passed  for  use  in  neutral  countries,  and 
that  the  privilege  of  exhibiting  those  pictures  in  Ger- 
many was  a  German  prerogative!  Moreover,  that  he 
had  had  his  films  developed  free  of  charge. 

Some  of  my  films  were  submitted  to  the  General  Staff 
Censor,  and,  let  me  get  it  off  my  mind  at  once,  it  was 
most  galling  to  see  many  of  my  hard-earned  snapshots 
reproduced  in,  and  paid  for  hy,  German  periodicals.  I 
made  a  point  of  finding  out  whether  they  had  been  gra- 
tuitously distributed  through  the  censor's  office.  This 
was  not  the  case.  They  were  sold  by  the  firm  of  Mess- 
ter &  Co.  to  the  trade. 

Business  is  business  —  even  at  such  a  high-class  insti- 
tution as  the  General  Staff. 

But  why  should  I  grumble?  It  is  a  source  of  the 
greatest  satisfaction  to  me  that  neither  the  General 
Staff  nor  Herr  Messter  ever  laid  eyes  on  the  majority 


HUNTING  WITH  THE  CAMERA        119 

of  my  films !  They  were  developed  after  my  return  to 
London  by  my  very  able  agents,  The  Sport  and  General 
Press  Agency. 

To  any  one  looking  for  excitement,  I  can  thoroughly 
recommend  "  hunting  "  with  a  camera  in  the  war-zones. 


CHAPTER  XVII 

"spiritual    humour"     (GERMAN    VARIETY) 

1MUST  record  a  few  examples  of  German  war 
humour  and  sentiment.  Wherever  I  went  in  Ger- 
many, be  it  to  the  Eastern  front,  Berlin,  Kiel,  Ham- 
burg, etc.,  I  was  regaled  with  "  proofs  of  Germany's 
unquenchable  spirit." 

Two  Berliners  are  discussing  the  war.  One  has 
heard  a  rumour  that  China  is  going  to  join  the  Allies. 
*'  Heavens !  "  exclaims  his  friend,  "  is  the  whole  world 
anxious  to  become  Geraian.'' " 

Any  railroad  station. —  Fritz  has  spent  all  his  money 
and  wants  to  touch  Hans  for  half  a  mark  to  buy  some 
beer  and  sandwiches.  "  Can't  be  done,"  said  Hans. 
"  All  I  have  got  left  is  a  five-mark  note,  and  I  am  sav- 
ing that  till  I  get  to  London." 

In  front  of  a  book-store,  Unter  den  Linden:  In  the 
window  is  exhibited  a  photograph  of  the  Kaiser  and  the 
Czar  embracing  each  other.  Says  a  cobbler's  assistant : 
"  Wouldn't  I  like  to  be  in  Wilhelm's  place  now !  " 

In  another  book-store  photographs  of  the  Kaiser  and 
King  George  are  displayed,  surmounted  by  the  legend: 
"  Cousins." 

"  Well,  well,  Wilhelm,"  says  a  little  red-faced  woman, 
*'  I  must  say,  you  have  got  some  fine  relations.  Fd  be 
ashamed  of  them." 

Of  course,  the  most  popular  stories  are  those  about 

120 


«  SPIRITUAL  HUMOUR  »  121 

Hindenburg.  When  the  General  returned  to  his  head- 
quarters at  Lotzen,  after  the  Battle  of  the  Masurian 
Lakes,  a  large  crowd  of  soldiers  and  civilians  acclaimed 
him  as  their  deliverer,  and  clamoured  for  a  few  words. 

The  General  stood  up  in  his  car,  and,  pointing  his 
finger  upwards,  gravely  said: 

"  Thank  Him.     He  did  it." 

One  day  Hindenburg  issued  an  Army  Order  stating 
that  any  one  who  brought  him  a  Russian  flag  would 
receive  a  thousand  marks.  A  few  days  later  a  Jewish 
soldier  appeared  before  the  General,  and  delivered  a 
Russian  standard.  "  Well  done,  my  son,"  said  the  Gen- 
eral, as  he  pinned  the  Iron  Cross  on  the  brave  private, 
"  and  here  are  3'our  thousand  marks." 

The  Jew  looked  at  the  thousand-mark  note,  and  then 
timidly  asked  whether  the  General  would  please  give  it 
him  in  smaller  change.  The  General  wanted  to  know 
why,  as  he  could  not  spend  it  in  the  trenches.  "  Ah !  " 
replied  the  Jew,  "  you  see.  Excellency,  the  Russian  who 
sold  me  the  flag  is  waiting  downstairs  for  his  hundred 
marks." 

When  the  Russian  Generals  heard  about  Hinden- 
burg's  promise  of  prize  money  for  captured  flags,  they 
did  the  same.  While  Rennenkampf  was  in  East  Prus- 
sia, a  large  number  of  German  flags  were  brought  to 
him.  They  were  beautiful  affairs  of  black,  blue  or 
white  plush,  with  gold  lettering  and  gold  and  silver 
tassels.  One  day  a  Russian  officer,  who  knew  German, 
noticed  these  flags,  and,  when  he  read  the  inscriptions, 
burst  into  fits  of  uncontrollable  laughter. 

The  German  *'  regimental  standards,"  for  which  Ren- 
nenkampf had  been  paying  his  thousand  roubles  a  piece, 
turned  out  to  be  emblems  of  Various  East  Prussian 


122  BEHIND  THE  GERMAN  VEIL 

"  Gesang  Verein "  ("choral  societies"),  such  as  one 
may  find  in  every  little  village,  every  hamlet,  all  over  the 
Fatherland. 

At  Instcrburg,  in  East  Prussia,  where  I  risked  a 
shave,  the  barber  had  decorated  one  of  the  chairs  with 
a  placard,  "  In  this  chair  General  von  Hindenburg  sat 
and  had  his  hair  cut."  I  sat  in  the  same  chair,  but  all 
I  can  say  is,  that  if  the  General's  hair  was  cut  as 
atrociously  as  I  was  shaved,  I  think  he  will  wait  till 
after  his  "  triumphal  march  "  into  London  for  the  next. 

There  is  another  Hindenburg  Jew  story  which  is  very 
popular.  A  Jew  was  recommended  for  the  Iron  Cross. 
Hindenburg  thought  he  would  have  his  little  joke  with 
the  man,  and,  incidentally,  test  the  strength  of  his 
commercial  instincts  as  compared  with  his  patriotism. 
"  Now  tell  me,  comrade,"  asked  Hindenburg,  "  which 
would  you  rather  have  —  the  Iron  Cross  or  one  hundred 
marks  ?  " 

The  Jew  pondered  for  a  second  or  two,  and  then 
inquired  what  the  intrinsic  value  of  the  Iron  Cross  might 
be.  "  Oh,  about  eight  marks,  I  think,"  replied  Hinden- 
burg. 

"  Well,  Excellency,"  said  the  Jew  seriously,  "  then 
I'll  have  the  Iron  Cross  and  ninety-two  marks,  if  you 
please." 

Of  course,  there  are  the  usual  stories  which  are  inter- 
national. At  any  rate,  I  have  heard  the  two  following 
ones  in  both  camps.  One  of  the  commonest  relates  to 
the  scale  of  payment  for  snipers.  For  every  private 
they  kill  they  receive  one  mark,  for  a  subaltern  two 
marks,  for  a  captain  three  marks,  a  colonel  five  marks. 

"  And  how  much  for  a  General.''  "  you  perhaps  inno- 


^er  (^nglanbcr  in  bcr  >)dUc 


ExGLISHMAN    IN    HeLL 
'No  ZeppeJinn,  no  Krupp 
Howitzers ;    jw    submarines! 
Why,  I   7nust    be   in   Heaven!' 


"  SPIRITUAL  HUMOUR  "  123 

cently  inquire.     The  answer  is :     "  Two  weeks  C.B. !  " 
("  confined  to  barracks  "). 

Then  there  is  the  "  grateful  prisoner  "  story. 

Two  men  have  been  taken  prisoner.  Impressed  by, 
and  full  of  gratitude  for,  the  splendid  treatment  they 
have  received  (instead  of  being  tortured  to  death  as 
they  had  been  led  to  expect),  they  beg  their ^  cap- 
tors to  allow  them  to  return.  They  promise  to  come 
back  at  night  with  at  least  a  hundred  others.  The 
officer  in  charge,  of  course,  trusts  them,  and  at  nightfall 
the  two  grateful  prisoners  promptly  return  with  their 
hundred  compatriots. 

A  few  days  after  England  had  declared  war,  a  letter 
addressed  to  John  Bull,  London,  was  returned  by  the 
German  postal  authorities  with  the  legend,  "  Firm  dis- 
solved." 

At  every  railroad  station  in  Germany  you  can  always 
find  a  large  number  of  officious  female  helpers.  One  of 
these,  a  young  woman  anxious  to  do  her  bit  for  the 
Fatherland,  goes  up  to  a  wounded  soldier,  and  asks  him 
whether  there  is  anything  she  can  do  for  him.  Would 
he  like  another  pillow,  would  he  like  a  sandwich,  would 
he  like  some  coffee,  tea,  milk,  water?  But  our  wounded 
keeps  on  shaking  his  head.  Finally,  the  Fraulein  asks 
whether  she  may  sponge  his  face  with  vinegar.  In 
exasperation  the  offer  is  accepted.  When  she  has  fin- 
ished he  says :  "  Now,  Fraulein,  I  did  not  want  to  spoil 
your  pleasure,  but  you  are  exactly  the  seventeenth  that 
has  been  washing  my  face  during  the  last  hour." 

The  night  England  declared  war  on  Germany,  several 
"V  Fill  in  nationality  according  as  to  which  side  you  are  on. 


124!  BEHIND  THE  GERMAN  VEH. 

very  excited  Englishmen  rushed  to  the  Friedrichstrasse 
Station,  and  asked  the  stationmaster  the  quickest  way 
to  get  to  London.  "  Well,  gentlemen,"  said  that  suave 
official,  "  if  I  were  you  I  would  go  and  inquire  at  the 
General  StaflP.     They  are  sure  to  know." 

Says  Thomas  Atkins  to  a  few  of  his  brothers-in-arms : 
"  Come,  lads,  let's  go  and  starve  the  Germans  out. 
We'll  let  them  take  us  prisoner." 

A  German  N.C.O.  has  been  taken  prisoner  by  a  Rus- 
sian N.C.O.  He  tries  to  regain  his  liberty  by  bribery. 
He  offers  one  mark.  The  Russian  shakes  his  head. 
No.  Two  marks?  No.  Three  marks?  The  Russian 
remains  adamant.  Five  marks?  Then  the  Russian 
says :  "  No ;  but  I'll  let  you  go  and  give  you  five 
roubles  into  the  bargain,  if  you'll  take  me  with  you." 

Two  Berliners  are  sitting  in  Unter  den  Linden  at 
night.  "  For  heaven's  sake,  Hans,  don't  talk  so  much ; 
people  will  take  you  for  a  foreigner." 

An  old  proverb  has  been  changed,  or  rather  amended, 
as  follows : 

"  Speech  is  silver ;  silence  is  golden,  but  lying  is 
British." 

The  inscriptions  on  some  of  the  railroad  cars  are 
often  quite  amusing,  and  .  .  .  telling. 

On  a  Bavarian  troop  train  near  Nuremberg  was 
written : 

"  Young  Lions  !  Do  not  rouse."  ("  Feeding  is  per- 
mitted.") 

Same: 

"  jBe  careful !     Bavarians  !  " 


"  SPIRITUAL  HUMOUR  "  125 

There  is  hardly  a  car  or  compartment  that  is  without 
some  inscription  or  other.  Usually :  "  Nach  Paris," 
''  Nach  London,"  or  "  Nach  Petersburg." 

On  a  car  at  Allenstein  Station  was  announced: 
"  Next  month  great  public  auction.     The  skin  of  the 
Czar."      (A  case  of  dividing  the  bear's  skin  before  it  is 
caught. ) 

One  inscription  announced :  "  Change  of  Name. 
Formerly  '  William  Peaceful  &  Co.,'  now  '  Ironeater  & 
Son.' » 

A  very  popular  joke  is  the  one  about  German  diplo- 
mats. The  story  goes  that  George  and  William  had 
finally  come  to  terms. 

"  All  right,"  says  William,  "  3'ou  give  me  back  my 
Colonies,  pay  me  so  much  war  indemnity,  and  I'll  with- 
draw my  armies  from  Belgium  and  France." 

"  Right-o ! "  says  George,  and  sits  down  to  write  out 
the  agreement.  As  he  is  about  to  append  his  signature 
to  the  document,  the  Kaiser  suddenly  exclaims : 

"  Hold  on  a  minute.  There  is  one  little  clause  I 
forgot.  Of  course,  England  must  agree  to  take  over 
all  our  diplomats." 

Thereupon  George  in  great  anger  throws  down  his 
pen  and  replies : 

"Nothing  doing!  What  do  you  take  me  for?" — 
adding  that,  if  William  wants  those  terms,  he  prefers 
to  go  on  fighting.      (And  so  they  did.)  ^ 

An  amusing  story  is  told  about  a  Turco,  who  was 
taken  prisoner  early  in  the  war.     When  he  came  to  the 

1  The  author  of  "  J'accuse  "  tells  this  story,  too,  in  his  book.  I 
hope  he  will  take  my  word  for  it  that  I  am  not  plagiarizing.  I 
beard  the  anecdote  in  Germany  long  before  his  book  came  out. 


126  BEHIND  THE  GERMAN  VEIL 

prison  camp,  evidently  never  having  seen,  let  alone  slept 
in,  a  bed,  he.  refused  to  lie  down.  It  was  only  with  the 
greatest  difficulty,  accompanied  by  physical  persuasion, 
that  they  finally  got  him  under  the  blankets. 

The  next  morning,  long  after  all  the  other  prisoners 
had  risen,  our  friend  the  Turco  was  still  in  bed,  and  he 
positively  refused  to  get  up.  The  only  answer  he  made 
(with  a  broad  smile  of  satisfaction  on  his  face)  to  the 
different  expostulations  of  his  fellow-prisoners  and 
guards  was  the  ejaculation:     "  Paradiso,  Paradise!" 

I  came  across  a  most  typical  example  of  that  curious 
mixture  of  morbid  sentiment  and  humour  in  one  of  the 
hospitals  in  Berlin. 

Passing  through  one  of  the  wards  I  noticed  on  the 
shelf  above  one  of  the  wounded  the  photograph  of  a 
French  private.  Thinking  that  he  was  a  Frenchman, 
I  stopped  and  spoke  to  him.  But  he  shook  his  head,  and 
the  doctor  explained  that  he  was  a  German. 

"  What  about  that  French  photograph .''  "  I  inquired. 

The  explanation  was  to  be  found  on  the  back.  After 
the  French  private's  name  was  written: 

"  He  died  a  hero's  death  on  18.12.14  through  me.''' 
(The  italics  are  mine.) 

And  that  is  what  Germans  call  "  Geistiger  Humour  " 
— i.e.i  "  Spiritual  humour !  " 


PART    II 

MY  TRIP  TO  THE  EASTERN  FRONT  AND 
VISIT  TO  HINDENBURG 


CHAPTER  XVIII 

PEE  LIMIN  ARIES 

MY    TRIP    TO    THE   ilASTERN    FRONT    AND    VISIT    TO 
HINDENBURG 

"r  I  ^HIS  is  all  you  will  need  in  Germany,"  said  young 
J.  Hindenburg,  nephew  of  the  great  General,  as 
he  gave  me  a  letter  of  introduction  to  his  illustrious 
uncle.  And  he  was  right.  That  letter  proved  an  Open 
Sesame  wherever  I  went  in  Germany.  It  would  be 
interesting  to  know  how  many  people  read  it  (it  was 
open,  of  course)  before  I  finally  presented  it  to  Hinden- 
burg himself. 

The  only  difficulties  I  met  with  occurred  in  Berlin. 
There,  what  with  the  bickerings  and  jealousies  between 
the  Foreign  Office  and  the  General  Staff,  I  was  kept 
waiting  while  the  weeks  slipped  by.  At  the  General 
Staff,  as  soon  as  they  had  seen  my  letter  to  Hindenburg 
they  were  quite  agreeable,  but  the  Foreign  Office  was 
not.  They  wanted  me  to  serve  the  usual  term  of  three 
months'  apprenticeship,  customary  for  all  neutral 
journalists.  They  wanted  to  make  certain  that  I  was 
really  "neutral"   (read:  pro-German). 

As  Baron  Mumm,  of  the  Foreign  Office,  put  it: 
"  We  want  to  know  you  a  little  bit  better,  and,  ahem ! 
see  something  of  your  work." 

When  my  permits  for  the  Eastern  front  remained 

elusive  I  called  on  those  two  ever-valiant  allies  of  all 

intrepid    and    adventurous    journalists — "Cheek    and 

Chance  " —  and  decided  that,  pass  or  no  pass,  I  would 

129 


130  BEHIND  THE  GERMAN  VEIL 

go  and  present  my  letter  to  General  Hindenburg,  or 
.  .  .  land  in  gaol  in  the  attempt! 

I  must  explain  here  thai  the  whereabouts  of  Hinden- 
burg's  headquarters  were  by  no  means  as  common 
knowledge  in  Germany,  as  British  or  French  head- 
.quarters  are  in  England  and  France.  It  is  a  carefully- 
guarded  secret,  and  I  am  sure  that  not  one  German  in 
ten  thousand  knew  in  those  days  where  Hindenburg 
really  was.  To  go  off  in  search  of  Hindenburg  along 
an  eight-hundred-mile-front  would  be  like  looking  for 
the  proverbial  needle  in  a  haystack,  and  be,  to  say  the 
least,  a  somewhat  dangerous  wild-goose  chase.  I  was 
up  against  a  difficult  proposition. 

To  ask  any  one  in  the  know  outright  would  have  been 
very  unwise,  not  to  say  downright  foolhardy ;  and,  any- 
how, would  not  have  had  the  desired  effect.  Newspaper 
correspondents,  whether  German  or  neutral,  were  just 
as  ignorant  of  Hindenburg's  whereabouts  as  the  great 
majority  of  people.  With  the  exception  of  von 
Wiegand,  I  doubt  whether  any  neutral  journalist  has 
ever  been  to  Hindenburg's  headquarters,  or  at  least  had, 
at  that  time. 

I  had  to  resort  to  strategy,  and  I  regret  to  say  that 
it  took  the  shape  of  French  champagne,  which,  as  I  soon 
discovered,  was  the  most  popular  beverage  amongst  the 
oflScers  of  the  Berlin  General  Staff. 

You  could  propose  to  an  officer  from  the  War  Office 
or  from  one  of  the  line  regiments  a  bottle  of  Rhine  wine, 
a  cocktail,  a  whisky  and  soda,  or  even  beer;  but 
"  Generalstabler "  and  "  Die  Garde "  would  look 
askance  at  such  common  drinks.  Nothing  but  French 
vintage  would  do  for  them.  But  it  was  money  well 
spent.  Some  of  the  most  interesting  and,  let  me  quickly 
add»  some  of  the  most  truthful  information  I  obtained 


PRELIMINARIES  131 

was  over  a  bottle  of  Perrier-Jouet,  Pol  Roger,  Pom- 
mery,  and  other  French  wines.  If  ever  it  needed  proof, 
I  found  it  in  Germany  that :     "  In  vino  Veritas." 

The  fates  were  kind  to  me.  I  think  Dame  For- 
tune must  have  a  sneaking  regard  for  journalism. 
Maybe  it  is  a  sign  of  the  times  — "  It  pays  to  adver- 
tise." 

After  a  week  of  night  sittings  —  some  of  them  all- 
night  affairs  —  one  of  my  many  esteemed  guides  and 
advisers.  Major  Herwarth  von  Bitterfeld,  of  the  Gen- 
eral Staff,  revealed  to  me  one  night  in  the  small  hours 
the  magic  name  of  Hindenburg's  headquarters. 

True,  it  was  not  until  we  had  drained  the  third  bottle 
of  Pol  Roger ;  but,  then,  what  are  three  bottles  amongst 


enemies 


I  knew  that  Hindenburg  had  been  at  the  Fortress  of 
Posen  for  some  time,  so  in  the  course  of  conversation  I 
mentioned  the  magnificent  old  castle  there  as  such  a 
fit  and  appropriate  place  for  Hindenburg. 

"Why,  man,"  roared  the  now  genial  Major,  forget- 
ting that  my  rooms  were  flanked  by  occupied  bedrooms, 
and  that  the  hour  was  3.30  a.  m.,  "  I  think  you 
m-m-must  be  d-d-drunk,  or  are  3^ou  a-ssleep.?  You're 
a  fine  sort  of  wideawake  journalist.  Hindenburg  left 
Posen  months  ago.  At  present  he  is  at  Fortress  Boyen, 
near  that  dirty  little  hole,  Lotzen.  No  castle  there,  I 
can  tell  you." 

The  Major  was  in  that  happy  condition,  the  border- 
land between  sober  and  drunk.  Perhaps  it  was  a  good 
thing,  because  othei'wise  he  might  have  seen  me  catch 
my  breath  and  noticed  the  sudden  gleam  in  my  eye. 
It  may  not  strike  you  as  affording  cause  for  so  much 
satisfaction,  but,  all  I  can  say^  is,  that  if  you  had  tried 
for  six  weeks  to  learn  the  name  of  a  certain  place,  and 


132  BEHIND  THE  GERMAN  VEIL 

especially  one  of  extreme  importance,  well  ...  I  was 
satisfied. 

"  They  do  keep  changing  about,"  I  remarked  in  an 
offhand  way. 

"Rather,"  acquiesced  the  Major.  "They  have  to. 
The  whole  Eastern  front  is  simply  honeycombed  with 
spies.  We  learnt  from  several  sources  that  the  Rus- 
sians would  rather  see  Hindenburg  shot  than  take  a 
hundred  thousand  prisoners.  They  believe  that  he  is 
the  keystone,  the  very  heart  and  brains  of  our  Eastern 
campaign." 

"  And  isn't  he.'*  "  I  inquired.  (This  last  remark  sug- 
gested hidden  possibilities.)  The  Major  looked  wise  — 
that  is,  as  wise  as  it  was  possible  for  him  to  look  in  his 
condition.  He  lifted  his  glass  to  me,  tried  to  wink  one 
eye,  but  could  not  make  up  his  mind  which,  so  winked 
both,  and  slowly  said :  "  Eh,  speaking  about  our  friend 
the  enemy,  the  Russians,  here  is  our  daily  toast  to  them, 
*  Long  life  to  Grand  Duke  Nicholas,'  or,  as  our  Irish 
friends  would  say,  '  May  his  shadow  never  grow  less.'  " 

After  having  drained  his  glass,  he  wiped  his  mouth 
and  moustache  with  the  back  of  his  hand,  and  then 
settled  down  a  bit  deeper  into  my  best  arm-chair. 
"  Hindenburg  is  a  great  General,  but  LudendorfF  is  — 
his  Chief  of  Staff,"  he  pronounced  cryptically.  "  If 
the  truth  were  known,  you  would  find  that  Ludendorff 
is  the  real  brains  of  our  Eastern  campaign."  Alas !  at 
this  juncture  the  Major  crossed  the  borderline,  and  not 
many  minutes  later  was  snoring  merrily.  I  wanted  to 
get  rid  of  him  now,  as  I  had  to  plan  my  Eastern  cam- 
paign. I  telephoned  downstairs  to  the  "  American 
Bar,"  and  when  I  heard  that  some  of  the  Major's 
cronies  were  still  down  there,  asked  that  some  one  should 
be  sent  up  to  fetch  him.  Two  of  them  came,  but  an- 
other "  brimful  "  hour  elapsed  before  I  got  rid  of  them. 


PRELIMINARIES  153 

I  learnt  the  next  morning  that  they  continued  the  ses- 
sion downstairs  in  the  bar  till  nearly  7  a.  m. 

And  now  to  work.  "  Feste  Boyen,"  "  Lotzen," 
"  Feste  Boyen,"  "  Lotzen,"  where  the  devil  may  they  be? 
Truth  to  tell,  I  had  never  heard  of  either  of  them,  but 
the  excellent  German  General  Staff  maps  soon  helped 
me  out.  Boyen  is  a  small  fortress  in  the  Masurian 
Lake  district,  near  the  town  of  Lotzen,  and  in  close 
proximity  to  the  Polish  frontier.  They  lay  at  quite  a 
respectable  distance  from  Berlin.  I  discovered  that  if 
I  could  board  one  of  the  special  Eastern  trains,  running 
nightly  from  Berlin  to  Allenstein  —  a  ten  hours'  trip  — 
I  would  then  be  within  about  seventy  miles  of  the  East- 
ern headquarters.  Once  at  Allenstein,  I  would  have  to 
trust  to  luck  once  more  and  either  hire  a  motor,  per- 
suade some  one  to  give  me  a  lift,  or  manage  to  steal  on 
board  one  of  the  military  trains. 

Then  I  went  to  bed  and  slept  the  sleep  of  the  success- 
ful, the  sweetest  sleep  of  all. 


CHAPTER  XIX 

BERLIN ALLENSTEIN 

MEETING      WITH      YOUNG      VON      BETHMANN-HOLLWEG 

ARREST       IN       THE       FORTRESS       OF       POSEN    ...    IN 
PYJAMAS 

IN  the  afternoon  I  went  shopping.  I  bought  all  that 
was  necessary  for  a  winter  trip  into  Poland.  True, 
I  already  had  a  fair  outfit,  but,  of  course,  I  could  not 
be  seen  leaving  the  hotel  with  any  luggage.  I  would  not 
have  gone  far !  I  placed  my  purchases  in  a  suit-case 
and  drove  to  the  Friedrichstrasse  Station,  where  I  de- 
posited it  in  the  cloak-room.  At  night  I  dined  at  the 
hotel,  not  omitting  to  dress  as  usual,  went  to  the  hotel 
office  and  engaged  a  seat  for  one  of  the  theatres  and 
proceeded  thither. 

The  Eastern  Express  was  scheduled  to  leave  at  11 
p.  M.  At  10 :40  I  telephoned  from  a  public  call-oflfice 
to  the  hotel  that  I  had  met  an  old  friend  and  was  going 
to  spend  a  few  days  with  hira. 

The  Friedrichstrasse  Station  is  the  Charing  Cross 
and  Victoria  combined  of  Berlin,  only  still  more  im- 
portant. There  are  few  military  trains  that  do  not 
either  start  from  there  or  pass  through.  That  is  the 
reason  why  it  is  one  of  the  best  guarded  stations  in 
Germany  and  one  of  the  hardest  to  get  into. 

When  I  alighted  from  my  taxi  at  the  Friedrichstrasse 
Station,  there  were  a  number  of  soldiers  standing  close 
to  the  entrance.     They  all  jumped  into  position  and 

134 


BERLIN  —  ALLENSTEIN  135 

saluted.  That  gave  me  a  sudden  inspiration.  Though 
I  was  not  wearing  a  uniform,  of  course,  I  had  the  next 
best  thing  to  it.  I  wore  my  long  British-made  auto- 
mobile coat,  buttoned  high  a  la  militaire,  a  green  peak- 
less  cap  with  a  chin  strap  (quickly  lowered),  and  on  it 
the  large  badge  of  a  neutral  coat-of-arms. 

"  Here,  you ! "  I  bawled  at  them  in  my  best  imitation 
of  a  German  lieutenant's  tone  of  voice.  The  effect  was 
dynamic.  All  five  ran  towards  me,  saluted,  clicked 
their  heels,  and  shouted  in  chorus :  "  Zu  Befehl !  "  I 
don't  know  to  this  day  why  I  did  not  burst  out  in  a  fit 
of  convulsive  laughter.  The  situation  appealed  to  my 
sense  of  humour.  I  took  out  my  cloak-room  ticket, 
gave  it  to  the  nearest  one,  placed  a  mark  on  top  of  it 
(one  shilling;  the  charge  is  ten  pfennigs  —  i.e.,  a  frac- 
tion of  a  penny),  and,  still  acting  my  part,  said:  "  Go 
to  the  cloak-room  and  get  my  bag,  pay  for  it,  keep 
the  change,  but  be  damned  quick  about  it."  "  Zu 
Befehl ! "  shouted  the  man  again,  and  there  was  some- 
thing triumphant  in  the  tone  of  his  voice.  There  was 
envy  in  the  eyes  of  his  less  fortunate  comrades.  He 
saluted  scientifically,  turned  right  about  in  a  manner 
that  showed  his  perfect  training,  and  then  went  off  at 
the  double  for  my  bag.  Though  I  saw  at  least  a  dozen 
other  passengers  near  the  luggage  office,  "  my  man  " 
tvas  back  in  the  twinkling  of  an  eye,  and,  saluting  again, 
asked  what  my  orders  were.  I  discovered  suddenly  that 
I  had  forgotten  to  send  an  important  despatch,  so  I  went 
to  the  telegraph  office,  leaving  a  hundred-mark  note  in 
the  hands  of  my  over-awed  private  (by  the  banknote, 
of  course),  after  having  shouted  to  him  "  Erster  Allen- 
stein  "  ("  First  class,  Allenstein  ").  Five  minutes  later 
he  met  me  with  the  ticket.  I  could  have  hugged  him, 
German  or  no  German,  and  almost  felt  like  telling  him 
to  keep  the  change.     I  soon  discovered  that  ray  ticket 


136  BEHIND  THE  GERMAN  VEIL 

was  what  is  called  a  "  Mllitarbillct."  Of  course,  I  was 
much  surprised  at  that,  because  I  never  told  the  man 
to  ask  for  a  military  ticket ;  but  it  was  too  late  to  change 
now,  so  we  passed  through  the  gate,  taking  the  salutes 
of  ticket-puncher,  two  policemen  and  various  soldiers. 

The  soldier  deposited  my  bag  in  a  first-class  sleeping 
compartment,  saluted,  and  wanted  to  be  off.  But  not 
so  hasty,  my  friend.  I  liked  the  look  of  that  guards- 
man; it  gave  me  an  appearance  of  authority,  not  to 
say  respectability,  to  have  him  standing  there  so 
straight  and  respectful.  I  thought  it  might  be  a  good 
plan  to  keep  him  in  attendance  till  my  train  left.  That 
was  supposed  to  be  in  less  than  ten  minutes,  but  one 
never  knows  in  war-time.  So  I  told  him  that  I  had  one 
or  two  letters  to  write  which  I  wanted  him  to  post  for 
me.  I  kept  him  there  for  nearly  twenty  minutes  while 
I  wrote  letters  to  imaginary  people,  and  also  gave  myself 
seA'eral  opportunities  of  hearing  that  short,  crisp,  busi- 
nesslike,  and  very   welcome :     "  Zu   Befehl,   Herr   Offi- 


zier 


I  " 


Shortly  after  11  p.  m.,  on  a  cold  March  night,  I  left 
Berlin  on  my  way  to  see  Hindenburg.  "  How  far  would 
I  get.?  "  was  a  question  which  frequently  entered  my 
mind.     Dame  Fortune  still  seemed  to  favour  me. 

At  the  next  station  (Berlin  —  Exchange)  several  offi- 
cers boarded  the  train.  One  of  them,  a  very  young 
"  Fahnrich "  {i.e.,  Ensign)  entered  my  compartment. 
Of  course,  he  noticed  at  once  my  evening  clothes,  my 
military-looking  great-coat,  and  the  badge  on  my  cap, 
and  —  like  a  German  —  was  not  going  to  take  any 
chances.  (The  German  reasoning  in  rendering  military 
salutes  is  somewhat  on  the  following  lines :  "  When  in 
doubt,  presume  he's  a  General ;  you  may  be  wrong,  but 


BERLIN  —  ALLENSTEIN  137 

it's  better  to  treat  a  Captain  as  a  General,  than  a  Gen- 
eral as  a  Captain.")  So  he  saluted,  clicked  his  heels, 
bowed  and  begged  my  thousand  pardons  for  having  to 
disturb  me ;  but,  "  if  I  would  graciously  permit  it,"  his 
sleeping-car  ticket  assigned  to  him  the  upper  berth  of 
my  compartment.  Of  course,  I  did  graciously  permit 
it,  and  soon  put  him  at  his  ease.  But  though  he  was 
soon  reassured  that  I  was  not  a  General,  I  made  a  point 
of  showing  him  my  letter  of  introduction  to  von  Hinden- 
burg,  which  had  almost  the  same  effect.  He  jumped  up 
again,  apologised,  clicked  his  heels,  etc.,  and  inquired 
whether  I  was  sure  I  did  not  mind  his  remaining  there, 
etc.,  etc. 

He  left  me,  evidently  to  tell  his  friends  about  it,  and 
a  little  later  there  came  a  procession  of  seven  of  them 
to  the  door  of  my  compartment,  to  pay  —  please  don't 
laugh  —  their  respects.  One  after  another  they  stood 
in  the  narrow  opening,  saluted,  clicked  their  heels  so  as 
to  make  their  spurs  ring,  and,  in  short  snappy  words 
said :  "  Erlaube  die  Ehre  mich  vorzustellen,  von 
Plewe  "  ("  I  have  the  honour  to  present  myself,  von 
Plewe"),  and  off  he  marched  to  make  room  for  the 
next,  who  repeated  to  a  word  the  same  formula.  In 
that  way  I  met  young  von  Bethmann-Hollweg,  cousin  of 
the  German  Chancellor.  Be  it  said  right  here,  I  found 
him  a  very  decent  fellow.  There  was  no  dining  or 
restaurant  car  on  that  train  (most  of  them  had  been 
transformed  into  ambulance  cars),  but,  nevertheless,  we 
found  conviviality  in  spirits.  Purely  as  a  matter  of 
precaution  against  the  cold,  I  had  amongst  my  pro- 
visions a  large  bottle  of  old  French  cognac.  I  little 
thought  when  I  bought  it  in  the  morning  that  scarcely 
twelve  hours  later  it  would  begin  its  career  of  usefulness. 
We  sat  up  till  after  two  a.  m. —  Plewe,  von  Bethmann, 
young  Freiherr  von  ,  and  another  officer  whose 


138  BEHIND  THE  GERMAN  VEIL 

name  I  have  forgotten.  My  bottle  was  soon  emptied, 
but  was  replaced  by  one  from  a  parcel  —  a  "  Liebes- 
gabe  "  ("love-gift")  which  a  pretty  admirer  had  sent 
to  von  Plewe.  They  had  been  on  four  days'  leave,  and 
were  now  rejoining  their  regiment. 

I  asked  them  whether  they  were  by  any  chance  pass- 
ing through  "  Lotzen,"  and  it  is  a  good  thing  that  my 
voice  did  not  reveal  all  the  anxiety  that  was  in  my  heart. 
Alas !  no ;  they  were  only  going  as  far  as  Allcnstein, 
and  from  there  were  continuing  by  car  to  Ortelsburg. 
Lotzen  was  in  the  opposite  direction.  What  a  pity! 
It  would  have  been  so  pleasant  to  travel  all  the  way  in 
such  congenial  compan3\  They  assured  me  that  I 
would  have  no  difficulty  at  Allenstein  in  finding  suitable 
transport  to  Lotzen,  as  there  were  always  numerous  cars 
passing  up  and  down  to  headquarters ;  and  if  none  of 
these  could  take  me,  there  were  also  frequent  military 
trains.  "  Of  course,"  von  Bethmann  concluded,  "  any 
one  in  your  position  "  (I  could  not  help  smiling  at  this 
—  mentally,  of  course)  "won't  have  the  slightest  diffi- 
culty in  obtaining  permission  to  travel  by  any  convey- 
ance that  is  available." 

Needless  to  say,  I  did  not  sleep  much  that  night. 
First,  because  of  the  excitement  of  the  adventure;  sec^ 
ondly,  because  I  wanted  to  see  as  much  as  I  could  of 
the  places  we  passed  through ;  thirdly,  because  —  well, 
never  mind  the  third  reason. 

We  arrived  at  the  fortress  of  Posen  at  4  a.  m.  As  we 
had  half  an  hour  to  wait,  I  thought  a  little  walk  might 
be  interesting  and  beneficial !  I  slipped  my  great-coat 
over  my  pyjamas,  thrust  m}'  bare  feet  in  my  pumps, 
and  a  minute  later  was  out  on  the  platform. 

Posen  was  at  the  time,  and  for  that  matter  still  is, 
one  of  the  most  important  points  in  the  German  lines 


BERLIN  —  ALLENSTEIN  139 

of  communication.  It  is  a  formidable  fortress  and  the 
railhead  of  a  number  of  strategic  railroads  from  east, 
west,  north  and  south. 

All  communications  with  the  Eastern  front  pass 
through  Posen.  Lines  from  Breslau  (and  through 
Breslau  to  Galicia),  from  Berlin,  Frankfurt,  Stettin, 
Thorn,  Danzig  and  Konigsberg  meet  here.  It  is,  so  to 
speak,  the  point  of  distribution  for  men  and  material 
for  the  Eastern  front.  Now  that  Germany  has  pene- 
trated further  into  Russia,  and  is  able  to  use  several 
other  points  d'appui,  Posen  is  not  as  vital  a  spot  as 
in  those  earlier  days.  Needless  to  say  that  it  was  most 
zealously  guarded  against  spies  and  "  accidents  "  of  any 
kind. 

The  Germans  believe  in  the  old  axiom  that  an  ounce 
of  prevention  is  worth  a  pound  of  cure.  Foreigners 
were  rarely  permitted  to  visit  Posen.  The  few  who  did 
had  to  furnish  themselves  with  numerous  permits  and 
passes. 

Every  track  of  the  large  station  was  occupied  by 
military  trains,  mostly  filled  with  troops.  One  train  of 
nearly  forty  trucks  was  loaded  exclusively  with  auto- 
mobiles. What  an  eloquent  story  the  different  freight- 
cars  told.  There  were  very  few  German  ones  amongst 
them.  Most  of  them  bore  French  and  Belgian  names  — 
Lille,  Maubeuge,  Brussels,  Dinant,  Liege,  Anvers  —  all 
bearing  the  usual  legend  of  so  many  "  Hommes  "  and 
so  many  "  Chevaux."  All  appearances  pointed  to  the 
fact  that  Hindenburg  was  once  more  shuffling  his  armies 
about  the  chess-board  Poland. 

That  is  the  place  I  found  myself  at  one  March  morn- 
ing about  4  A.  M. 

I  had  felt  somewhat  tempted  to  invite  my  fellow- 
traveller,  the  young  ensign,  to  accompany  me.      (It  is 


140  BEHIND  THE  GER]MAN  VEIL 

always  well  to  be  properly  chaperoned  in  such  places 
as  Posen  when  short  of  permits.)  But  considering  that 
it  Avas  his  last  night  in  bed,  I  had  not  the  heart  to  wake 
him  up  and  drag  him  out.  I  thought  of  borrowing  his 
helmet,  and  tried  it  on ;  but,  alas !  it  was  about  three 
sizes  too  small,  and  stuck  on  the  back  of  my  head  like 
the  familiar  monkey  cap. 

About  a  hundred  yards  from  the  platform  I  noticed 
a  large  electric  sign:  "  Restauration."  I  thought 
that  a  cup  of  hot  coffee  might  be  an  excellent  "  chaser  " 
of  my  train-sickness,  and  before  long  I  was  blowing 
over  a  cup  of  the  welcome  brew. 

It  came  near  to  being  the  most  expensive  cup  of 
coffee  I  had  ever  touched. 

The  waiting-room  was  filled  with  soldiers  and  pre- 
sented a  picture  worthy  of  the  brush  of  a  De  Neuville 
or  a  Detaille.  The  scene  was  interesting;  Soldiers  of 
all  ranks,  ages,  and  branches  filled  the  large  hall. 
Every  one  of  them  was  in  full  field  kit,  and  the  majority 
still  wore  small  nosegays  on  their  helmets,  in  their 
button-holes,  and  sometimes  even  in  the  muzzle  of  their 
rifles.  I  did  not  omit  to  look  at  their  shoulder-straps, 
just  for  the  sake  of  curiosity,  and  discovered  that  they 
belonged  to  the  21st,  22nd  and  25th  Infantry  Brigades 
and  the  63rd  and  the  157th  Cavalry  Brigades. 

They  seemed  quite  cheerful,  and  several  of  them  were 
singing  in  quartette  or  quintette  a  song  telling  of  the 
future  meeting  in  the  Vaterland !  A  strange  thing  I 
noticed  was  the  entire  absence  of  beer.  The  strongest 
drink  any  grizzled  paterfamilias  was  drinking  was  lem- 
onade or  soda-water.  Naturally  I  at  once  jumped  to 
the  conclusion :  "  Aha  !  shortage."  But  I  was  wrong. 
When  in  an  offliand  manner  I  ordered  a  glass  of 
"  Miinchener,"  the  waiter  promptly  carried  out  my 
order.     I  was  near  a  group  of  sergeants  and  saw  them 


BERLIN  —  ALLENSTEIN  141 

casting  envious  eyes  at  the  frothing  mug.  Calling  one 
of  them  over,  I  inquired  about  this  curious  phenomenon 
of  Germans  drinking  lemonade.  He  soon  explained  it 
to  me.  Except  at  the  front  —  that  is,  anywhere  in  the 
firing-line  —  soldiers  cannot  buy  a  drop  of  alcohol  of 
any  kind.  "  Do  you  know,"  he  said,  "  that  I  have  not 
had  a  drop  of  beer  for  nearly  a  month?  You  see,  in 
Poland  we  can  only  get  it  by  buying  a  whole  barrel. 
Sometimes  we  club  together,  but  we  have  to  pay  six 
marks  (six  shillings)  for  the  cask  alone.  This  money 
is  refunded  if  the  barrel  is  returned  in  good  condition 
to  the  brewery.  You  can  imagine  what  chance  there  is 
of  that  when  all  available  space  for  transport  is  re- 
quired for  the  wounded,  or  for  goods  that  need  re- 
pairing." 

Of  course,  he  had  an  ulterior  motive  in  telling  me  all 
this,  and  it  soon  came  out.  Smacking  his  lips  for  the 
hundredth  time,  he  continued :  "  Ahem !  might  I  ask  a 
favour.''  Would  you  be  so  kind  as  to  order  another 
glass  of  beer  for  yourself,  and  —  ahem !  —  permit  me 
to  drink  it.?  "  And  at  this  he  tried  to  slip  a  small  coin 
(ten  pfennigs)  into  my  hand,  explaining  that  of  course 
he  would  pay  for  the  beer  himself. 

The  situation  tickled  my  sense  of  humour.  Here  was 
I  in  Posen,  one  of  Germany's  most  important  fortresses 
and  a  symbol  of  Prussian  militarism,  innocent  of  any 
permit,  in  my  English  pyjamas  under  my  English  great- 
coat, representing  an  English  publication,  and  being 
politely  asked  by  a  German  sergeant,  who,  if  he  had 
had  the  slightest  inkling  of  my  identity  would  have  torn 
me  limb  from  limb,  or  at  least  arrested  me,  to  buy  a 
glass  of  beer  for  him  which  he  himself  could  not  obtain. 
If  this  situation  does  not  upset  all  the  laws  of  probabil- 
ity, I  don't  know  what  does. 


m  BEHIND  THE  GERMAN  VEIL 

I  ordered  that  glass  of  beer,  and  nine  more,  and  paid 
for  them  with  greater  pleasure  than  I  ever  did  for  a 
drink  before. 

The  sergeant  and  his  two  friends  who  had  joined  him 
thanked  me  most  profusely,  and  warmly  shook  hands. 
The  waiter  winked  an  eye  at  our  group  every  time  I 
ordered  another  "  Miinchener,"  and  pretended  admira- 
tion for  my  speed  and  capacity. 

But  when  I  wanted  to  leave  the  waiting-room  and 
return  to  my  train,  the  fun  started.  I  had  left  the 
platform  and  entered  the  restaurant  without  being  way- 
laid at  all.  But  twenty  minutes  later  I  found  at  all  the 
doors,  beside  the  usual  ticket  collector,  a  policeman  and 
a  soldier.  Shades  of  Napoleon !  No  ticket,  no  permit, 
no  identification  paper  of  any  kind,  not  even  a  visiting 
card.     I  had  been  a  fool. 

The  policeman  looked  searchingly  at  me  and  seemed 
to  compare  me  with  some  sort  of  a  description  he  held 
in  his  hand.  Conscience  stricken,  I  of  course  jumped 
immediately  to  the  conclusion  that  my  departure  from 
Berlin  had  already  been  discovered.  And  after  having 
played  Lady,  or  rather  "  Sir,"  Bountiful  to  those  ser- 
geants.    What  beastly  luck! 

It  goes  without  saying  that  they  made  all  the  fuss 
they  possibly  could  and  strenuously  interlarded  their 
dissertation  with  the  word  "  Verboten."  Of  course,  I 
offered  to  take  them  to  my  compartment  and  show 
them  all  the  permits  in  Germany.  I  explained  that  I 
had  had  a  sudden  attack  of  some  kind  or  another,  cold, 
thirst,  anything.  I  was  asked  to  open  my  great-coat, 
so  as  to  show  that  I  was  unarmed  and  undisguised.  I 
did.  The  three  of  them,  joined  by  a  group  of  soldiers, 
stared  at  my  purple-striped  py j  amas  with  deep  interest, 


BERLIN  —  ALLENSTEIN  143 

when  suddenly  a  voice  exclaimed  "  Englander."  I  can 
assure  you  that  never  did  a  word  affect  me  so.  It 
seemed  to  start  in  my  brain  and  slowly  trickle  down 
my  spine,  oozing  out  at  my  toe  and  returning  through 
another  one,  and  going  the  same  way  back.  "  Eng- 
lander "  and  "  Posen."  Brr !  The  whole  audience  was 
electrified.  Curses !  Why  didn't  I  do  in  Germany  as 
the  Germans  do  and  wear  a  respectable  nightshirt. 

And  my  train  was  due  to  leave  in  about  eight  minutes ! 

"  Ja,  ja! "  growled  a  policeman  in  reply  to  my  pro- 
tests, "  Aber  Sie  sind  kein  Deutscher."  ("  Yes,  that's 
all  very  well,  but  you  are  not  German.")  It  was  finally 
decided  to  send  for  the  stationmaster  and  the  officer  in 
charge  of  the  station  guard.  When  they  came  we  ad- 
journed to  my  compartment  to  verify  my  statements. 
Off  we  marched.  I  was  in  the  centre,  flanked  by  a 
policeman  on  one  side  and  a  soldier  with  a  loaded  rifle 
on  the  other.  Half  a  hundred  men,  mostly  military, 
followed  us,  and  I  heard  many  an  ominous  whisper  of 
"  Spion "  and  "  Englander."  At  first  I  intended  to 
take  them  to  my  own  compartment  and  try  the  old  trick 
of  showing  them  Hindenburg's  letter.  But  on  second 
thoughts  I  feared  that  after  all  this  fuss,  and  being 
without  a  permit,  the  letter  might  prove  insufficient 
for  once.  When  we  boarded  the  sleeping  car,  I  went 
straight  to  von  Bethraann-Hollweg's  berth,  woke  him 
up,  and  privately  explained  the  situation.  I  did  not 
omit  to  mention  that  the  officer  of  the  station  guard 
was  a  mere  infantry  subaltern.  Bethmann-Hollweg  was 
out  of  his  berth  in  half  a  second,  clapped  on  his  helmet 
and  put  on  his  tunic.  He  wore  what  the  authoress  of 
*'  Elisabeth  and  her  German  Garden  "  describes  as  "  the 
night  attire  that  is  still,  thank  Heaven,  characteristic  of 
every    honest    German    gentleman."     The    effect    was 


144  BEHIND  THE  GERMAN  VEIL 

startling.  He  looked  like  a  military  Amazon.  Thus 
clothed,  he  rushed  out  into  the  narrow  corridor,  and 
faced  my  would-be  gaolers. 

I  wish  I  could  reproduce  here  verbatim  Bethmann- 
Hollweg's  homily.  It  was  so  beautifully,  utterly  and 
characteristically  German.  It  was  magnificent.  It 
was  a  classic.  Oh !  such  language.  His  words  made 
the  very  carriage  shake ;  at  least,  they  had  that  effect 
upon  the  luckless  young  lieutenant,  the  fat  policeman 
and  the  private. 

In  a  voice  that  would  have  wakened  the  dead,  Holl- 
weg  demanded  to  know  how  they  dared  have  the  imperti- 
nence to  molest  his  distinguished  foreign  friend.''  Did 
they  realise  who  I  was.^*  Did  they  know  that  I  was  a 
personal  friend  of  General  von  Hindenburg  and  on  my 
way  to  join  his  Staff.''  Did  they  knoAV  who  he  (himself) 
was?  His  name  was  von  Bethmann-Hollweg,  Captain 
in  the  3rd  Dragoons.  How  did  they  dare  have  the  im- 
pertinence to  enter  this  private  carriage,  how  did  they 
dare  to  arouse  a  car  of  officers  —  officers,  sir  —  this  to 
the  young  lieutenant  —  who  are  in  the  fighting  line,  not 
a  hundred  and  fifty  miles  behind  it,  growing  fat  and 
lazy !  Perhaps  they  would  like  to  see  his  pass.^*  Would 
they.? 

Well,  by  all  the  "  pigs'  snouts  "  in  Germany,  if  they 
did  not  get  out  of  his  car  in  two  shakes,  he  would  have 
them  kicked  out  by  his  servant. 

That,  as  far  as  it  is  fit  for  reproduction  here,  is  about 
the  substance  of  this  nocturnal  oration,  call  it  curtain 
lecture,  if  you  like  (in  view  of  Hollweg's  attire),  which 
once  again  made  me  a  free  man. 

During  the  entire  harangue  the  three  had  stood  at 
attention,  literally  shaking  in  their  boots.  They  needed 
no  second  "  Raus  "  ("  Get  out ")  to  make  them  run. 
They  disappeared  as  fast  as  ever  they  could  pick  their 


BERLIN  —  ALLENSTEIN  145 

way  over  topboots  and  other  military  paraphernalia  in 
the  dark  corridor. 

That  is  how  I  escaped  Posen  gaol,  and  who  knows 
what  else. 

Even  to-day  I  can  raise  a  laugh  at  the  memory  of 
Bethmann-Hollweg  in  his  peculiar  get-up,  the  torrential 
flow  of  abuse  and  sarcasm  that  fell  from  his  lips,  and  the 
terrified  officials  who  took  to  their  heels  as  soon  as  ever 
they  could.  The  whole  situation  was  ludicrous  in  the 
extreme. 


CHAPTER  XX 

ALLENSTEIN 

WE  arrived  at  Allenstein  about  9 :30  a.  m.,  only 
ten  minutes  over  scheduled  time,  which,  consider- 
ing the  fact  that  troop  and  ambulance  trains  had  been 
running  all  night,  was  very  good  work.  We  went  to 
the  hotel  "  Deutsches  Haus "  and  had  an  excellent 
breakfast.  In  order  to  procure  a  bread  ticket  we  all 
had  to  take  a  room.  I  saw  not  the  least  sign  there, 
although  within  comparatively  short  distance  of  the 
Polish  frontier  and  of  the  Russians,  of  any  shortage  of 
food.  The  bread  ticket  seemed  merely  a  matter  of 
form,  because  we  received  a  great  deal  more  than  the 
small  coupon  marked  "  25  gram  "  entitled  us  to. 

Early  in  the  war  the  Russians  visited  Allenstein  and 
were  there  for  four  days.  I  have  talked  to  scores  of 
Germans,  inhabitants  of  the  town,  and  did  not  find  a 
single  one  amongst  them  who  had  the  least  complaint 
to  make  concerning  the  conduct  of  the  "  Russian  hordes 
and  barbarians,"  as  the  Huns  call  them.  The  Mayor  of 
Allenstein  was  decorated  by  the  Kaiser  with  the  Iron 
Cross,  and,  if  ever  there  was  a  man  who  deserved  it, 
it  was  that  mayor.     He  should  be  made  ambassador. 

The  story  of  how  he  earned  it  will  bear  re-telling, 
especially  as  it  has  the  additional  merit  of  being  true. 

When  the  Russians  came  within  ten  miles  of  Allen- 
stein, Mayor  Zuelch,  accompanied  by  several  of  the  city 
fathers,  met  them. 

Mayor  Zuelch,  when  he  was  brought  in  the  presence  of 
the  General  in  command,  handed  over  the  gold  keys  of 

146 


ALLENSTEIN  147 

the  city,  and  begged  him  to  consider  the  place  his.  The 
Russian  General  —  evidently  knowing  his  German  — 
invited  the  Mayor  and  his  city  councillors  to  remain 
with  him  until  they  reached  Allenstein.  Incidentally,  he 
warned  them  that  if  any  tricks  should  be  played  the 
most  severe  counter-measures  would  be  taken ;  and  that, 
if  the  Russian  troops  should  meet  with  any  treachery 
on  the  part  of  the  townspeople,  Allenstein  would  be 
burnt.  The  Mayor  protested  his  goodwill,  assuring 
him  that  there  were  no  German  soldiers  left  at  Allen- 
stein, and  that  the  citizens  would  not  commit  any  act 
of  war.  "  Therefore,  my  dear  General,"  pleaded  the 
diplomatic  mayor,  "  since  Allenstein  from  to-day  on 
to  all  intents  and  purposes  becomes  as  much  Russian 
as  Petersburg  is,  wh}^  should  you  destroy  it?  You 
would  be  destroying  your  own  property ! " 

I  obtained  some  very  interesting  information  at  Allen- 
stein throwing  further  light  on  the  German  character. 
When  I  was  making  inquiries  among  the  natives  about 
the  conduct  of  the  Russians  and  asked  whether  there 
had  been  any  plundering,  the  answer  was  startling: 

"  Yes,  there  had  been  a  good  deal  of  ransacking  of 
shops  and  restaurants,  but  not  by  the  Russians.  The 
day  before  they  occupied  Allenstein  —  that  is,  on  Aug- 
ust 25th,  (1914) — the  population  absolutely  lost  its 
head.  The  majority  of  them,  with  their  beds,  trunks 
and  all  belongings  that  were  transportable,  left  by  road 
and  rail,  and  at  nightfall  the  number  of  inhabitants  had 
shrunk  from  forty  thousand  to  five  thousand.  The 
remainder  thereupon  ran  riot,  plundered  the  shops,  res- 
taurants, the  station  buffet,  and  even  private  houses. 
The  mob  was  absolutel}^  past  control.     I  was  assured 

BY  SEVERAL  WELL-KNOWN    CITIZENS  THAT  THEY  HAD  NOT 

EVEN  THE  EXCUSE  OF  HUNGER.     When  a  sober,  though 


148  BEHIND  THE  GERMAN  VEIL 

panic-stricken,  population  starts  plundering  its  own 
city,  what  can  one  expect  from  soldiers,  drunk  with  the 
lust  of  battle,  intoxicated  by  wine  and  rum,  and  in  the 
enemy's  country? 

Only  after  the  arrival  of  the  Russians  was  order 
restored.  Before  the  main  body  of  Russian  troops 
entered  the  city,  sentries  with  loaded  rifles  were  placed 
in  front  of  every  shop,  hotel  and  restaurant.  They  had 
instructions  to  fire  at  any  one,  friend  or  foe,  who  tried 
to  enter  those  premises  except  on  legitimate  business. 

Russian  sentries  protecting  a  German  city  from  its 
own  rabble !     Indeed,  here  was  a  pretty  story. 

I  have  been  through  every  part  of  Allenstein,  but 
not  a  house,  not  a  tree,  had  been  damaged  or  destroyed. 
When  I  wandered  through  the  streets  and  parks  and 
listened  to  the  stories  of  the  late  Russian  invasion,  my 
mind  flew  back  to  Belgium ;  I  thought  of  Namur,  Lou- 
vain,  Termonde,  Nieuport,  Dixmude,  Ypres.  .  .  . 

And  the  Germans  speak  of  "  Russian  hordes  " ! 

At  night,  during  dinner,  while  talking  with  one  of  the 
garrison  officers,  I  compared  the  condition  of  Allenstein 
and  East  Prussia  in  general  with  that  of  Belgium,  as 
I  had  seen  it  in  the  early  days  of  1915. 

*'  Ah !  that  was  quite  a  diff'erent  matter,"  he  told  me. 
"  You  see,  the  Allensteiners  were  polite  to  the  enemy ; 
they  simply  bowed  their  heads  to  the  inevitable,  and  bid 
the  conquerors  welcome.  What  would  you.f^  This  was 
war,  and  one  has  to  swallow  one's  pride  sometimes.  But 
Belgium  —  why,  those  people  had  off'cred  iTsistance, 
had  actually  fired  at  the  German  troops.  Think  of 
that,  sir,  civilians  firing  at  German  soldiers !  " 

I  have  learnt  the  value  of  silence  these  last  two  years, 
so  I  did  not  enter  into  an  argument  by  asking  the  officer 
by  what  right  the  Germans  had  invaded  a  peaceful 
country  with  which  they  had  no  quarrel. 


ALLENSTEIN  149 

There  is  one  criticism,  though,  that  I  must  make 
about  the  Russian  command  at  Allenstein,  viz.,  the 
shortsightedness  of  not  having  blown  up  the  two  promi- 
nent railway  bridges. 

Allenstein  is  a  point  where  six  railroads,  from  as 
many  different  directions,  meet.  It  was  at  that  time  the 
most  important  centre  for  the  movement  and  distribu- 
tion of  troops  in  that  part  of  the  war  zone.  It  is  my 
opinion  that  it  should  have  been  the  first  care  of  the 
Russian  command  to  have  had  everything  in  readiness 
to  blow  up  those  two  bridges.  That  would  have  dis- 
organised for  a  considerable  time  the  German  lines  of 
communication.  The  Germans  suddenly  returned,  and 
in  large  numbers.  The  Russian  troops  in  Allenstein 
had  to  withdraw  in  great  haste.  At  the  eleventh  hour 
two  men  tried  to  destroy  the  bridges,  but  both  were  shot 
before  they  were  able  to  carry  out  their  object.  Those 
two  bridges  stand  to-day  as  they  did  before  the 
war. 

Here,  again,  the  genius  of  the  mayor  worsted  the 
Russians.  The  day  after  their  arrival  at  Allenstein  the 
Russian  General  informed  the  mayor  that  he  was  going 
to  blow  up  the  two  railway  bridges  on  the  southern  side 
of  the  town.  The  mayor  remonstrated  with  him,  and 
pointed  out  that  this  would  be  not  only  useless,  but 
actually  prejudicial  to  their  own  interests.  German 
trains  would  never  utilise  them  again ;  but,  on  the  other 
hand,  it  was  more  than  likely  that  ere  long  the  Russians 
themselves  would  need  them  for  military  transport  en 
route  for  Berlin !  !  ! 

How  it  was  possible  that  the  Russians  had  no  infor- 
mation of  the  German  army  corps  that  was  advancing 
on  their  right  flank  is  a  riddle  to  me,  and  to  all  who 
have  followed  this  part  of  the  campaign.  Where  were 
the  Russian  aviators? 


150  BEHIND  THE  GERMAN  VEIL 

The  porter  of  the  hotel  "  Deutsches  Haus  "  was  also 
decorated.  As  it  appeared  that  he  had  been  in  his 
present  job  since  long  before  the  war,  I  wondered  how 
he  had  earned  his  Iron  Cross.  He  told  me.  It  was  a 
clever  story,  and  I  made  a  point  of  verifying  it.  After 
the  main  body  of  Russians  had  left  Allenstein,  four 
Russian  Staff  officers,  who  had  been  on  an  automobile 
reconnaissance,  returned  to  the  hotel.  There  they 
learnt  that  all  their  colleagues  had  left,  and  that  the 
Germans  were  at  hand.  It  seems  that  they  had  some 
important  documents  in  their  rooms  which  they  were 
anxious  to  save.  They  rushed  to  the  elevator,  ordered 
the  attendant  to  take  them  upstairs,  to  the  third  floor, 
and  told  him  to  wait.  A  few  minutes  later,  when  they 
descended,  the  lift  stopped  half-way  between  the  second 
and  the  third  floor.  They  smashed  the  roof  and  tried 
to  climb  out,  but  they  could  not  reach  the  next  floor. 
Their  shouts  for  help  met,  of  course,  with  no  response. 
They  remained  imprisoned  in  that  lift  for  over  an  hour. 
When  the  Germans  arrived,  strange  to  say,  the  mechan- 
ism suddenly  started  working  once  more.  The  German 
Uhlan  officers  "  liberated  "  the  captives,  but  only  to 
make  them  prisoners  in  another  form. 

That  porter  knows  a  thing  or  two  about  elevators 
and  electrical  engineering. 

I  think  this  is  one  of  the  greatest  hard-luck  stories 
I  have  come  across  during  the  war. 

My  train  acquaintances  left  me  in  the  afternoon  for 
their  ultimate  destination,  the  small  town  of  Ortelsburg, 
some  fifteen  miles  south  of  Allenstein,  and  in  a  district 
that  has  seen  much  fighting. 

Before  they  left  we  all  wrote  a  number  of  picture 
postcards,  and,  of  course,  according  to  German  custom, 
everybody  signed  his  name  to  everj^body  else's  message. 


Lieutenant  von  Bethmann-Hollweg,  Who  Has 

Since   Been   Killed,  on  the   Right,  and 

THE  Author 

Photograph   iva*    taken   at    Allenstein  Station 


ALLENSTEIN  151 

Bethmann  sent  a  card  to  a  mutual  acquaintance  at  the 
Foreign  Office  in  Berlin,  which  he  asked  me  to  sign.  I 
took  great  care  that  my  signature  was  an  unreadable 
hieroglyphic.  Still,  after  all,  it  was  perfectly  safe,  be- 
cause I  was  entrusted  with  the  posting  of  the  cards. 
I  thought  it  wiser  not  to  set  the  official  mind  wondering 
who  the  "  charming  journalist  "  was  that  Bethmann 
mentioned.  (I  posted  it  a  month  later  from  Stettin  on 
the  day  I  bid  farewell  to  the  Fatherland.) 

Before  I  left,  Bethmann  had  taken  me  to  the  head- 
quarters of  the  20  th  Army  Corps,  commanded  by  Gen- 
eral Count  von  Schlieffen.  In  the  absence  of  the  Gen- 
eral, he  presented  me  to  Major  von  der  Goltz,  nephew 
of  the  late  Field-Marshal.  General  von  Schlieffen  was 
expected  back  about  6  p.  m.  When  I  returned  at  that 
hour,  von  der  Goltz  introduced  me  to  his  chief.  I  must 
frankly  admit  that,  German  or  no,  I  found  him  a  most 
delightful,  genial  and  courteous  man.  I  produced  —  I 
wonder  how  many  times  I  had  done  so  before  —  the 
precious  letter  of  introduction  to  General  von  Hinden- 
burg. 

He  read  it,  and  then  inquired  what  he  could  do  for  me. 
I  told  him  that  I  was  anxious  to  get  over  to  Lotzen  and 
present  my  letter. 

"  Oh,  we  will  soon  arrange  that.  I  am  going  on  an 
inspection  trip  to-morrow  morning  to  Nicolaiken,  which 
is  only  about  twenty  miles  from  Headquarters.  If  I 
cannot  take  you  there  myself  I  will  get  you  a  car." 

"  I  hope  you  have  not  brought  too  much  luggage," 
he  added,  smilingly,  and  then  warned  me :  "  But  re- 
member, 6 :30  A.  M.,  my  friend." 

I  would  not  have  minded  if  it  had  been  4 :30. 

Really,  I  began  to  get  worried ;  such  is  the  perversity 
of  human  nature.  Everything  was  running  as  smoothly 
as  if  it  had  been  mapped  out  for  me  beforehand,  and 


152  BEHIND  THE  GERMAN  VEIL 

I  —  I  distrusted  my  good  fortune.  It  just  seemed  too 
easy.  Where  was  this  much  vaunted  German  thorough- 
ness? where  was  that  Gennan  carefulness,  shrewdness 
and  system?  Here  I  was  without  a  permit,  without  any 
miHtary  document  whatsoever,  only  my  letter  to  Hin- 
denburg,  which,  for  all  they  knew  of  its  authenticity, 
I  might  have  written  myself.  Here  was  I  in  the  German 
lines  hobnobbing  with  officers  of  all  ranks  and  planning 
motor  trips  with  the  General  commanding  an  army 
corps.  It  really  seemed  ludicrous.  My  belief  in  the 
infallibility  of  the  German  system  had  received  another 
rude  shock. 

But  I  was  punished  for  my  ingratitude  and  distrust 
of  Dame  Fortune. 

I  spent  a  most  interesting  half-hour  Avith  General 
von  SchliefFen.  He  showed  me  a  number  of  magnificent 
German  Staff  maps  of  Poland,  pointed  out  to  me  the 
various  Russian  and  German  positions,  and  told  me  a 
great  deal  of  Hindenburg's  plans  for  the  future.  When 
I  bid  him  good-bye  I  had  to  promise  him  that  we  would 
meet  at  dinner  later  in  the  evening.  I  was  almost  out- 
side the  door  of  the  map  room  when  he  suddenly  called 
out :  "  Of  course,  Herr  Beaufort,  you  have  all  your 
passes  and  permits  from  the  Berlin  General  Staff  in 
order?  " 

Well,  that  dished  me.  Wasn't  this  disgusting,  wasn't 
this  absolutely  heart-breaking?  After  having  bluffed 
my  way  from  Berlin  to  close  on  the  Polish  frontier, 
almost  within  earshot  of  the  Russian  guns,  after  .  .  . 
What  was  the  use,  what  did  anything  matter  now?  I 
felt  like  turning  round  and  telling  the  General  to  go 
ahead  and  do  his  worst. 

Re-entering  the  room,  I  feigned  great  surprise  at  his 
question.     Why,  of  course,  I  had  my  passport,  and 


ALLENSTEIN  153 

then  that  letter  to  Hindenburg,  also  an  introduction  to 
General  von  Below  —  yes,  most  assuredly,  all  my  papers 
were  in  order. 

Yes,  yes,  he  knew  all  that ;  but  what  he  meant  was  a 
permit  to  visit  the  front  and  the  official  pass  issued  by 
the  General  Staff  in  Berlin,  necessary  in  order  to  be 
able  to  enter  the  "  Etappenlinie "  ("Lines  of  Com- 
munication "). 

Again  I  looked  surprised.  "  Oh,  really  !  Well,  no ; 
you  see,  I  only  want  to  go  and  shake  hands  with  the 
famous  General.  I  do  not  wish  to  go  to  the  front  at 
all.  Oh,  dear  no !  all  that  would  come  later  on,  when 
the  journalists  go  in  nice  little  batches  of  six,  on  per- 
sonally-conducted tours  of  the  battle-field.  No,  this 
was  merely  a  preliminary  journey  to  go  and  present  a 
letter  of  introduction."  My  God !  how  I  talked,  and 
how  I  tried  to  side-track  him  on  to  another  subject. 

But  it  was  no  use.  He  would  insist  on  getting  back 
to  his  subject  —  the  Berlin  permit.  I  had  acted  abso- 
lutely against  all  precedent.  How  did  I  know  where 
Hindenburg  was?  Who  had  told  me?  It  was  a  great 
secret.  How  had  I  got  to  Allenstein?  How  had  I 
got  into  the  Friedrichstrasse  Station  and  the  train  with- 
out a  permit?  and  a  dozen  similar  questions.  It  was  a 
complicated  business. 

He  called  Major  von  der  Goltz  into  the  room  and  told 
him  the  situation.  Von  der  Goltz  was  a  sport.  He 
observed  that  since  I  had  got  this  far,  it  might  be  just 
as  well  to  let  me  finish  my  trip,  and  suggested  telephon- 
ing to  Lotzen.  In  that  way  they  could  shift  the  re- 
sponsibility on  to  Headquarters.  "  I  would  be  only  too 
delighted  to  take  you  without  all  this  fuss,"  explained 
von  SchliefFen ;  "  but  we  must  obey  orders,  and  I  might 
get  into  awful  trouble  myself.  You  are  in  the  lines  of 
communication,  where  no  civilians  except  those  that  live 


154.  BEHIND  THE  GERMAN  VEIL 

in  the  district  are  permitted  without  a  special  pass." 
I  suppose  I  should  have  been  thankful  that  I  was  not 
locked  up  at  once.  He  promised  to  telephone  to  Lotzen 
and  ask  whether  he  might  bring  me  over  the  next  morn- 
ing. He  would  let  mc  know  the  answer  when  we  met 
at  dinner. 

Huh!  I  could  have  told  him  the  answer  right  there 
and  then.  You  see  it  is  a  rule  that  has  no  exception, 
that  when  it  comes  to  asking  a  favour  over  the  tele- 
phone, especially  when  there  is  a  doubtful  element  in 
the  case  —  and  a  war  correspondent  these  days  always 
is  a  doubtful  element  —  the  surest  and  simplest  answer 
is  invariably  "  No."  This  rule  is  international,  it  ap- 
plies to  all  countries  and  to  all  languages.  I  assure  I 
speak  from  bitter  and  manifold  experience. 

I  walked  back  to  the  hotel,  less  chirpy  than  I  had  left 
it  an  hour  or  so  ago.  At  eight  o'clock  his  Excellency 
appeared,  and  with  many  assurances  of  regret  reported, 
as  they  say  in  Parliament :  "  The  answer  is  in  the 
negative."  He  was  very  sorry  that  he  would  have  to 
miss  my  charming  society  on  the  morrow;  but  one  of 
General  Hindenburg's  Staff  Officers  had  told  him  that 
I  could  not  possibly  continue  my  journey  under  the 
circumstances,  and  would  either  have  to  return  to  Berlin 
and  arrange  the  matter  there,  or  telegraph  to  the  Berlin 
General  Staff  to  forward  a^  permit  at  once.  Oh,  yes, 
I  could  see  them  in  Berlin  breaking  their  necks  to  send 
me  a  permit  "  at  once  " ! 

I  decided  that  the  best  thing  would  be  to  return  to 
Berlin  and  "  arrange  things  there  " ;  at  least,  that  is 
what  I  told  the  General. 

Of  course,  I  assured  him  that  I  had  been  a  perfect 
ass  not  to  have  thought  of  that  when  I  was  in  Berlin; 
but,  then,  no  doubt  he  would  understand  that  we  unmili- 


ALLENSTEIN  166 

tarj  nations  have  not  the  least  inkling  about  military 
regulations  and  necessities. 

He  felt  very  sorry  for  me  and  insisted  upon  settling 
the  dinner  bill. 

There  was  a  train  that  evening  at  11  p.  m.,  twenty- 
four  hours  after  my  departure  from  Berlin,  and,  as  he 
pointed  out,  he  was  reluctantly  obliged  to  send  me  back 
by  it.  At  first  I  intended  to  carr^^  out  his  orders,  but 
once  more  that  irrepressible  journalistic  spirit  of  ad- 
venture rebelled.  With  what  result  you  will  see  in  the 
next  chapter. 


CHAPTER  XXI 

ALLENSTEIN FESTE    BOYEN    (loTZEn) 

ABOUT  10:30  I  bid  the  kindly  General  good-bye, 
and  was  again  assured  how  sorry  he  was  not  to 
be  able  to  have  the  pleasure  of  my  company  to-morrow, 
etc.,  etc.  As  I  could  not  get  a  cab  or  taxi,  he  called  a 
private  and  told  him  to  carry  my  bag  for  me  to  the 
station.  At  first  I  wondered  whether  that  was  merely 
an  excuse  to  have  me  watched,  but  I  was  mistaken. 

I  was  beginning  to  enjoy  the  protection,  privileges 
and  dignity  which  the  company  of  a  private  soldier  lent 
me.  At  the  station  I  tipped  the  man  and  he  disap- 
peared at  once.  The  guard  at  the  restaurant  door  had 
seen  me  come  in  with  the  private  carrying  my  bag,  and, 
Germanlike,  was  not  going  to  take  any  chances.  He 
was  as  polite,  courteous  and  helpful  as  he  could  pos- 
sibly be.  I  inquired  about  trains.  "  Ah,  your  Excel- 
lency "  (it  did  sound  nice  in  my  journalistic  ears,  and 
to  my  uneasy  conscience),  "it  is  difficult  to  say  what 
delays  there  may  be.  The  down  train  is  an  hour  late 
already,  and  the  express  to  Berlin  has  just  been  re- 
ported held  up  without  any  definite  orders  at  Korschen 
(some  thirty  miles  further  east).  Large  movements  of 
troops.  Hindenburg  at  it  again,"  he  added  confiden- 
tially. The  waiting-room  was  crowded,  but  I  found  a 
corner  somewhere  with  a  chair,  and,  spreading  out  my 
maps  on  the  table,  I  started  to  write  my  diary  and  jot 
down  my  impressions.  This,  of  course,  attracted  con- 
siderable attention,  which,  I  shall  always  maintain  is 

156 


ALLENSTEIN  —  FESTE  BOYEN  157 

NOT  a  bad  plan  in  Germany.  The  German  who  has 
anything  on  his  conscience  sneaks  along  in  dark  shad- 
ows, fights  shy  of  the  daylight,  and  tries  to  remain  as 
unnoticed  and  humble  as  possible.  So  he  judges  that 
everybody  else  will  do  the  same,  and,  ergo,  anybody 
who  walks  in  the  middle  of  the  street,  with  his  head  well 
up,  MUST  be  some  one  in  authority.  Now  and  again  my 
friend  the  assistant  stationmaster  came  in  and  reported 
on  the  situation.  Once  or  twice  I  heard  him  say  "  For- 
eign Attache  to  Hindenburg's  Headquarters,"  in  reply 
to  various  inquiries  made  by  some  of  the  passengers  and 
ojQScers. 

When  I  found  the  entire  train  service  all  topsy-turvy, 
I  decided  that  I  would  leave  my  destination  in  the  hands 
of  the  fates  —  a  philosophical  attitude  to  take,  if  you 
are  waiting  for  a  train  in  the  heart  of  an  important  cen- 
tre of  communication.  My  argument  was  as  follows : 
"  The  goddess  of  journalism  has  protected  me  thus  far. 
Very  well.  The  first  train  that  reaches  this  station,  be 
it  passenger  or  troop  train,  going  East  —  towards  Hin- 
denburg's Headquarters  —  or  West  —  back  to  Berlin 
—  no  matter,  I  shall  get  into  it  and  leave  everything  else 
on  the  knees  of  the  gods." 

Midnight  came  and  still  no  sign  of  a  train.  One 
o'clock,  two  o'clock.  I  think  by  that  time  I  was  the 
only  civilian  left  in  the  waiting-room.  The  others  had 
returned  to  the  city,  deciding  to  wait  till  the  next  day, 
rather  than  spend  half,  or  perhaps  all  night  on  the  floor 
of  the  waiting-room.  At  2 :30  —  i.e.,  after  three  and  a 
half  hours'  waiting,  the  assistant  stationmaster  rushed 
up  to  me  and  announced  with  great  satisfaction  that 
"  Ein  Militarzug  "  ("troop  train")  was  due  in  about 
five  minutes.  "  Where  for  ?  "  I  inquired  indifferently, 
at  least  so  I  tried  to  make  it  sound.     "  For  Korschen 


158  BEHIND  THE  GERMAN  VEIL 

and  Insterburg,"  he  answered.  "  You  will  change  at 
Korschen,  where  you  will  have  no  difficulty  in  finding 
another  military  train  to  take  you  on  to  Lotzen." 

Well,  the  die  was  cast.  I  did  hesitate  for  a  fraction 
of  a  second,  in  which  a  hundred  fears  and  objections 
crowded  through  my  brain.  You  see,  I  could  no  longer 
act  the  part  of  an  ignorant  foreigner,  unaware  that  he 
was  in  the  lines  of  communication.  I  had  been  warned 
by  Count  von  SchliefFen,  so,  if  arrested,  I  had  no  defence 
whatsoever.  I  doubt  whether  I  could  have  maintained 
that  I  got  into  the  wrong  train.  Well,  faint  journalist 
never  won  fair  story,  so  en  avant  once  again.  My  af- 
fable friend,  the  assistant  stationmaster,  commandeered 
a  soldier  to  carry  my  bag  for  me,  and  out  we  marched 
on  to  the  platfonn,  and  through  a  tunnel  to  the  next 
one,  where  a  few  minutes  later  the  snow-covered  troop 
train  pulled  in. 

In  most  German  and  neutral  stories  about  military 
trains  I  think  it  is  always  understood  that  the  men  are 
singing  in  chorus,  w^aiving  their  helmets  and  shouting: 
"Nach  Petersburg,"  "  Nach  Paris,"  "  Nach  Calais." 
Well,  all  I  can  say  is  that  during  my  three  months'  pil- 
grimage I  have  seen,  met,  and  travelled  in  a  good  many 
military  specials,  but,  with  very,  very  few  exceptions, 
I  have  heard  no  singing,  no  shouting,  and  little  of  that 
much-advertised  German  "  Humour."  In  most  com- 
partments into  w'hich  I  glanced,  ten  men  (the  full  com- 
plement), with  their  entire  field  kit,  were  packed  to- 
gether as  close  as  sardines  in  a  box,  and,  in  the  majority 
of  cases,  they  were  either  sleeping  or  trying  to  do  so. 
The  faces,  far  from  showing  excitement,  showed  fatigue 
and  weariness,  and  I  heard  many  a  sigh  of  "  Ach,  wie 
lange  noch,  wie  lange  noch." 

When  they  were  singing,  it  was  as  a  inile  a  sentimental 


ALLENSTEIN  —  FESTE  BOYEN  159 

old  song,  with  some  new   additions,  called,  "  I  had  a 
Comrade."     The  words  are  somewhat  like  this : 

"  I  had  a  comrade,  a  better  one  you'd  never  find. 
The  drums  called  us  to  battle,  and  he  marched  at  my  side. 
Gloria,  Victoria,  with  heart  and  hand. 
For  the  Fatherland,  for  the  Fatherland. 

"  The  birds  in  the  forest  are  singing  so  sweet. 
In  the  home-land,  in  the  home-land  where  once  more  we'll  meet. 
Gloria,  Victoria,  etc. 

"A  bullet  then  came  a-flying;  whom  shall  it  strike,  thee  or  me? 
It  hit  him  in  the  breast,  and  he  lay  at  my  feet. 
He  stretched  out  his  hand  and  bid  me  farewell. 
In  all  eternity  he  will  remain  my  good  old  comrade." 

This  is  the  most  popular  German  war  song  of  the  day. 
Except  here  and  there  in  garrison  towns,  when  troops 
were  marching  to  or  from  the  station,  I  rarely  heard 
"  Die  Wacht  am  Rhein  "  or  "  Deutschland  iiber  Alles." 
Those  two  songs  are  what  is  described  as  "  order  songs." 
The  tempo  of  the  "  Good  Comrade  "  is  brisk,  and  it  is 
easy  to  march  to.  The  melody,  like  the  words,  was 
tender  and  sad,  but  very  tuneful.  The  song  itself  is 
very  old,  but  the  "  Gloria,  Victoria "  part  is  a  war 
addition. 

Oh,  these  digressions !  But  it  is  difficult  to  avoid 
them  when  trying  to  record  such  a  kaleidoscope  of 
impressions. 

The  military  special  was  crowded  with  sleeping  sol- 
diers, but  the  stationmaster  found  a  first-class  compart- 
ment for  me  in  which  there  was  only  one  officer.  I 
should  have  liked  for  a  change  to  travel  third  with  the 
soldiers,  and  obtain  some  local  atmosphere,  or  what, 
in  newspaper  parlance,  is  described  as  "  human  interest 
material." 

But  travelling  third  class  in  Germany  is  a  very  un- 
wise thing  to  do,  for  any  one  except  a  German.     Trav- 


160  BEHIND  THE  GERMAN  VEIL 

elling  third  and  stopping  at  anything  but  6rst-class 
hotels  are  amongst  the  important  "  don'ts  "  of  a  for- 
eign newspaper  man  in  Germany.  If  I  may  be  permit- 
ted to  express  an  opinion  on  the  subject,  I  think  that 
one  of  the  causes  that  led  to  the  downfall  of  my  esteemed 
colleague  and  fellow-explorer,  Mr.  Gocffrey  Pyke,  was 
the  fact  that  he  hid  himself  in  humble  third-rate  Berlin 
hotels.  It  was  a  great  mistake.  He  should  have  gone 
straight  to  the  Hotel  Adlon.  For  any  one  in  search  of 
news  and  information  it  is  the  most  profitable  as  well 
as  the  safest  place  in  Germany. 

Several  civilians  tried  to  board  this  train,  but  the 
railroad  employes  pushed  them  aside  and  bawled,  with 
a  liberal  accompaniment  of  curses,  that  this  was  a 
"  Militarzug,"  and  for  soldiers  only.  Oh,  how  often 
did  I  laugh  in  my  sleeve ! 

My  travelling  companion  was  not  very  talkative. 
He  was  more  than  half  asleep  when  I  entered  the  com- 
partment, so,  to  my  disadvantage,  he  lost  the  homage 
paid  to  me  by  the  very  obsequious  stationmaster.  Such 
a  pity !  I  might  have  continued  being  "  Excellenz," 
and,  who  knows,  perhaps  have  been  "  excellenced  "  into 
Hindenburg's  presence.  There  is  nothing  so  contagious 
in  Germany  as  a  title.  We  had  scarcely  started  when 
our  train  stopped,  and  was  side-tracked  to  permit  the 
up  express  to  pass.     It  was  the  Berlin  night  train ! 

I  had  missed  —  I  may  say  now  escaped  —  it  by  ten 
minutes. 

At  Korschen,  situated  between  Allenstein  and  Inster- 
burg,  I  had  to  change  to  a  little  branch  line  that  would 
take  me  to  Lotzen  and  Hindenburg.  For  some  reason 
or  other  most  of  the  military  expresses  I  boarded 
stopped  anywhere  from  a  quarter  to  half  a  mile  outside 
the  station :  Korschen  was  no  exception. 


ALLENSTEIN  —  FESTE  BOYEN         161 

As  no  passenger  train  was  in  sight  no  passes  were 
demanded;  nevertheless,  several  porters  shouted  some- 
thing about  "  Train  for  Lotzen,  military  only."  Well, 
I  had  to  be  military  once  more.  I  played  the  old  trick 
of  calling  a  soldier  to  carry  my  bag,  and  side  by  side 
we  marched  past  guards  and  soldiers  towards  the  train. 

A  few  first,  second  and  third-class  coaches  were  sand- 
wiched in  between  a  larger  number  of  freight  cars  carry- 
ing, judging  by  their  inscriptions,  ammunition,  wheat, 
barbed  wire  and  "  Liebesgaben."  Indeed,  one  might 
say,  all  that  was  near  and  dear  to  the  heart  of  a  soldier. 

When  dawn  broke  through  a  leaden  sky  it  revealed  a 
rolling,  snow-covered  country,  bare  as  a  Western  Ca- 
nadian prairie.  Here  and  there  on  the  horizon  was  a 
clump  of  fir-trees,  but  that  seemed  the  sole  vegetation 
in  this  part  of  the  country.  It  was  barren,  bleak  and 
gloomy.  The  houses  of  the  occasional  hamlets  and 
small  towns  we  passed  were  all  built  of  red  brick,  and 
nowhere  did  I  see  the  slightest  trace  of  a  garden.  It 
was  nothing  but  prairie,  lakes  and  marshes  on  all  sides. 
Brrr !  what  an  inhospitable  country,  what  a  terrible 
battlefield!  Talk  about  the  inundations  of  Flanders, 
the  mud  round  Ypres  —  why,  they  were  Kew  Gardens 
compared  to  this  place. 

At  7.30  A.  M.  we  reached  Fortress  Boyen,  Lotzen.  I 
was  cold,  tired,  hungry,  sleepy,  and,  to  be  quite  honest, 
just  a  bit  nervous.  I  realised  that  I  was  skating  on 
very  thin  ice,  and  that  one  break  would  land  me  in  gaol. 
My  entry  was  not  very  auspicious.  First  thing  I  knew 
I  was  in  a  row  with  an  ancient  Landsturm  ticket-col- 
lector, who  insisted  that  I  had  not  given  him  a  ticket. 
He  was  quite  right.  I  had  no  ticket  to  give  him ;  but, 
of  course,  it  would  have  been  suicidal  to  admit  that.  I 
had  to  speak  very  harshly  to  him  before  he  clicked  his 
heels,  "  found  "  mj  ticket,  and  apologised. 


162  BEHIND  THE  GERMAN  VEIL 

At  the  modest  little  hotel,  immodestly  called  "  Kaiser- 
hof,"  I  snatched  two  hours'  sleep.  Of  course,  such  a 
thing  as  a  bath  was  not  known  in  the  place.  I  shaved, 
ate  a  hearty  English  breakfast,  and  about  11  a.  m.  pro- 
ceeded with  a  beating  heart,  and  wondering  where  I 
would  be  an  hour  hence,  towards  the  ugly  Town  Hall 
where  Hindenburg's  headquarters  were  established. 


CHAPTER  XXII 

HINDENBUEG 

YES,  if  the  truth  be  told,  I  must  say  that  I  felt  just 
a  wee  bit  shaky  about  the  knees.  I  wondered 
what  view  they  would  take  of  my  perseverance,  worthy, 
I  am  sure,  of  a  kind  reception. 

I  would  wager  that  in  the  whole  of  Germany  there 
could  not  be  found  one  journalist  whose  hair  would  not 
have  stood  on  end  at  the  mere  suggestion  of  travelling 
to  Hindenburg's  headquarters  without  a  pass.  Why, 
he  would  sooner  think  of  calling  at  the  Palace  "  Unter 
den  Linden,"  and  of  asking  to  interv'iew  the  Kaiser. 

I  think  I  must  describe  to  you  the  way  I  appeared  at 
headquarters.  At  AUenstein  I  had  bought,  the  day 
before,  a  huge  portrait  of  Hindenburg;  it  must  have 
been  nearly  thirty  inches  long. 

Under  one  arm  I  carried  the  photograph,  in  my  hand 
my  letter  of  introduction,  and  in  my  other  hand  a  huge 
umbrella,  which  was  a  local  acquisition.  On  my  face  I 
wore  that  beatific,  enthusiastic  and  very  naive  expres- 
sion of  "  the  innocent  abroad."  I  had  blossomed  out 
into  that  modern  pest  —  the  autograph  maniac. 

Army  corps,  headquarters,  strategy  and  tactics  were 
words  that  meant  nothing  to  me.  How  could  they, 
stupid,  unmilitary  foreigner  that  I  was !  It  was  a  pure 
case  of  "  Fools  will  enter  where  angels  fear  to  tread.'* 
You  may  be  sure  that  my  subsequent  conversation  with 
the  Staff  captain  confirmed  the  idea  that  I  was  inno- 
cent of  all  military  knowledge,  and  that  I  probably  — 

163 


164.  BEHIND  THE  GERMAN  VEIL 

so  he  thought  —  did  not  know  the  difference  between 
an  army  corps  and  a  section  of  snipers. 

Why  had  I  come  to  Lotzen?  Why,  of  course,  to 
shake  hands  with  the  famous  General,  the  new  Na- 
poleon ;  to  have  a  little  chat  with  him,  and  —  last,  but 
not  least  —  to  obtain  his  most  priceless  signature  to  my 
most  priceless  photograph.  What?  Not  as  easy  as 
all  that,  but  why?  Could  there  be  any  harm  in  grant- 
ing me  those  favours?  Could  it  by  the  furthest  stretch 
of  imagination  be  considered  as  giving  information  to 
the  enemy?  What  good  was  my  letter  of  introduction 
from  the  General's  dear  nephew?  Of  course,  I  would 
not  ask  the  General  where  he  had  his  guns  hidden,  and 
when  he  intended  to  take  Petrograd,  Moscow  and  Kieff. 
Oh,  no;  I  knew  enough  about  military  matters  not  to 
ask  such  leading  questions. 

But  joking  apart.  On  showing  my  famous  letter  I 
had  no  diflSculty  whatsoever  in  entering  the  buildings 
of  the  General  Staff.  The  first  man  I  met  was  Haupt- 
mann  Frantz.  He  didn't  seem  a  bad  sort  at  all,  and  ap- 
peared rather  to  enjoy  the  joke  and  my  "innocence,'* 
at  imagining  that  I  could  walk  up  to  Hindenburg's 
Eastern  headquarters  and  say  "  Hello !  "  to  the  General. 

He  thought  it  was  most  "  original,"  and  certainly 
exceedingly  American.  Still,  it  got  him  into  the  right 
mood.  "  Make  people  smile,"  might  be  a  good  motto 
for  itinerant  journalists  in  the  war  zones.  Few  people, 
not  excepting  Germans,  are  so  mean  as  to  bite  you 
with  a  smile  on  their  face.  INlake  them  laugh,  and  half 
the  battle  is  won. 

Frantz  read  my  letter  and  was  duly  impressed.  He 
never  asked  me  whether  I  had  any  passes.  He  advised 
me  to  go  to  the  General's  house,  shook  hands,  and  wished 
me  luck. 

Phew!     I  was  glad  that  my  first  contact  with  the 


HINDENBURG  165 

General  Staff  had  come  off  so  smoothly.  I  had  been 
fully  prepared  for  stormy  weather,  if  not  for  a  hurri- 
cane. Cockily,  I  went  off  to  Hindenburg's  residence,  a 
very  modest  suburban  villa  not  far  from  the  station, 
and  belonging  to  a  country  lawyer.  There  was  a  bit  of 
garden  in  front,  and  at  the  back ;  the  house  was  new, 
and  the  bricks  still  bright  red.  Across  the  road  on  two 
poles  a  wide  banner  was  stretched,  with  "  Willkommen  " 
painted  on  it. 

Two  old  Mecklenburger  Landsturm  men  guarded  the 
little  wooden  gate.  I  told  them  that  I  came  from 
Great  Headquarters,  and  once  more  produced  the  letter. 
They  saluted,  opened  the  gate,  and  one  of  them  ran 
ahead  to  ring  the  door  bell. 

I  walked  up  the  little  gravel  path  with  here  and  there 
a  patch  of  green  dilapidated  grass  on  either  side.  I 
remember  the  window  curtains  were  of  yellow  plush.  In 
the  window  seat  stood  a  tall  vase  with  artificial  flowers 
flanked  by  a  birdcage  with  two  canaries.  It  was  all 
very  suburban,  and  did  not  look  at  all  like  the  residence 
of  such  a  famous  man.  An  orderly,  with  liis  left  arm 
thrust  into  a  top-boot,  opened  the  door.  In  a  tone  of 
voice  that  left  no  chance  for  the  familiar  War-Office 
question:  "  Have  you  an  appointment,  sir?  "  I  inquired 
whether  the  Field-Marshal  was  at  home,  at  the  same 
time  giving  him  my  letter.  The  orderly  peeled  off  his 
top-boot,  unfastened  his  overalls,  and  slipped  on  his 
coat. 

Then  he  carefully  took  my  letter,  holding  it  gingerly 
between  thumb  and  third  finger,  so  as  not  to  leave  any 
marks  on  it,  and  ushered  me  into  the  "  Wohnzimmer," 
a  sort  of  living  and  dining-room  combined.  It  was  the 
usual  German  affair.  A  couch,  a  table,  a  huge  porce- 
lain stove,  were  the  prominent  pieces  of  furniture.  All 
three  were  ranged  against  the  long  wall.     The  straight- 


166  BEPIIND  THE  GERMAN  VEIL 

backed  chairs  were  covered  with  red  plush.  On  the 
walls  hung  several  monstrosities,  near-etchings  repre- 
senting the  effigies  of  the  Kaiser,  the  Kaiserin,  and,  of 
course,  of  "  Our  "  Hindenburg.  There  was  the  usual 
over-abundance  of  artificial  flowers  and  ferns  so  dear  to 
the  heart  of  every  German  Hausfrau. 

The  two  canaries  lived  in  the  most  elaborate  home- 
made cage.  (I  understand  they  were  the  property  of 
the  "Hausfrau,"  not  of  Hindenburg!)  On  the  table, 
covered  with  a  check  tablecloth,  stood  a  bowl  contain- 
ing three  goldfish.  The  floor  was  covered  with  a  bright 
carpet,  and  in  front  of  one  of  the  doors  lay  a  mat  with 
"  Salve  "  on  it.  Over  the  couch  hung  a  photogra])hic 
enlargement  of  a  middle-aged  soldier  leaning  non- 
chalantly against  a  door  on  which  was  chalked  "  Kriegs- 
jahr,  1914."  Over  the  frame  hung  a  wreath  with  a 
black  and  white  ribbon,  inscribed  "  In  Memoriam,"  tell- 
ing its  eloquent  story. 

Behind  me  was  a  map  of  the  Eastern  front,  and 
pinned  alongside  of  it  a  caricature  of  a  British  Tommy 
sitting  astride  of  a  pyramid  and  pulling  a  number  of 
strings  fastened  to  the  legs,  arms  and  head  of  the  Sul- 
tan, who  was  apparently  dancing  a  jig. 

That  room  impressed  itself  upon  my  memory  for  all 
time.     I  often  dream  of  it. 

I  had  waited  only  a  few  minutes  when  a  young  officer 
came  in,  who,  bowing  obscquiousl}'^,  wished  me  a  very 
formal  good-morning.  I  took  my  cue  from  the  way  he 
bowed.  He  explained  that  the  General  was  out  in  the 
car  but  was  expected  back  before  noon.  Would  I  con- 
descend to  Avait?     Needless  to  say,  I  did  "  condescend." 

I  forgot  to  mention  one  point  in  my  meditations. 
When  I  took  the  chance  of  continuing  East  instead  of 
returning  to  Berlin,  I  thought  there  might  just  be  a 


HINDENBURG  167 

possibility  that  the  Adjutant  or  Staff  Officer  who  had 
spoken  with  von  SchliefFen  had  entirely  taken  it  upon 
himself  to  say  "  No,"  and  that  it  was  not  unlikely  that 
the  General  knew  nothing  whatever  about  my  letter  or 
my  contemplated  visit.  If  my  surmise  was  correct,  I 
would  stand  a  sporting  chance,  because  it  was  hardly 
to  be  expected  that  out  of  the  thirty-odd  officers  com- 
prising the  Staff,  I  should  run  bang  into  the  very  man 
who  had  telephoned. 

I  soon  knew  that  the  officer  in  immediate  attendance 
on  Hindenburg  was  not  aware  of  my  contretemps  at 
Allenstein  on  the  previous  day.  Neither  did  he  inquire 
after  my  passes.  You  see,  they  take  these  things  for 
granted.  Would  I  prefer  to  wait  here  or  come  in  his 
office,  where  the  stove  was  \\i?  Of  course,  I  thought 
that  would  be  more  pleasant.  I  thought,  and  am  glad 
to  say  was  not  mistaken,  that  probably  the  young 
officer  felt  he  needed  some  mental  relaxation.  This  will 
sound  strange,  but  I  have  found  during  my  travels 
through  Germany,  that  in  spite  of  the  many  warnings 
not  to  talk  shop,  every  soldier,  from  the  humblest  pri- 
vate to  the  highest  General  —  I  am  sure  not  excepting 
the  War  Lord  himself  —  dearly  loves  to  expatiate  on 
matters  military,  his  ambitions  and  hopes.  This  one 
was  no  exception.  He  chatted  away  very  merrily,  and 
more  than  once  I  recognised  points  and  arguments 
which  I  had  read  weeks  ago  in  interviews  granted  by 
General  Hindenburg  to  Austrian  journalists.  He  quite 
imagined  himself  an  embryo  Field-Marshal. 

He  showed  me  several  excellent  maps,  which  gave 
every  railroad  line  on  both  sides  of  the  Polish  frontier. 
They  certainly  emphasised  the  enormous  difference  and 
the  many  advantages  of  German  versus  Russian  rail- 
road communications.  Many  of  his  predictions  have 
since  come  true,  but  most  of  them  have  not.     He  hinted 


168  BEHIND  THE  GERMAN  VEIL 

very  mysteriously,  but  quite  unmistakably,  at  a  pros- 
pective Russian  debacle,  and  predicted  a  separate  peace 
with  Russia  before  the  end  of  1915!  "And  then,"  he 
added,  "  we  will  shake  up  the  old  women  at  the  Western 
front  a  bit  and  show  them  the  '  Hindenburg  method.'  " 

The  room  we  were  in  was  fitted  up  as  an  emergency 
staff  office.  There  were  several  large  tables,  maps  ga- 
lore, a  safe,  a  number  of  books  that  looked  like  ledgers 
and  journals,  six  telephones  and  a  telegraph  instru- 
ment. Two  non-commissioned  officers  were  writing  in  a 
corner.  In  case  anything  important  happens  at  night, 
such  as  an  urgent  despatch  that  demands  immediate 
attention,  everything  was  at  hand  to  enable  the  General 
to  issue  new  orders.  A  staff -officer  and  a  clerk  are  al- 
ways on  duty. 

I  learned  later  on,  though,  that  a  position  in  that 
auxiliary  staff-office  at  Hindenburg's  residence  is  more 
or  less  of  a  sinecure.  All  despatches  go  first  to  Luden- 
dorff,  Hindenburg's  Chief  of  Staff,  who,  in  ninety-nine 
cases  out  of  a  hundred,  issues  orders  without  consulting 
his  Chief. 

In  the  midst  of  a  long  explanation  of  the  Russian 
plight,  the  voluble  subaltern  suddenly  stopped  short. 
I  heard  a  car  halt  in  front  of  the  house,  and  a  minute 
or  two  later  the  door  of  the  office  opened  and  Germany's 
giant  idol  entered.  I  rose  and  bowed.  The  officer  and 
the  two  sergeants  clicked  their  heels  audibly,  and  replied 
to  the  stentorian  "  Morgen,  meine  Herren,"  with  a  brisk 
"  Morgen,  Excellence." 

Hindenburg  looked  questions  at  me,  but  I  thought  I 
would  let  my  young  friend  do  the  talking  and  act  as 
master  of  ceremonies.  He  handed  Hindenburg  my  let- 
ter, and  introduced  me  as  "  Herr  '  von  '  Beaufort,  who 
has  just  arrived  from  Rome."     (I  had  left  Rome  nearly 


HINDENBURG  169 

three  months  before!)  The  General  read  his  nephew's 
letter  and  then  shook  hands  with  me,  assuring  me  of 
the  pleasure  it  gave  him  to  meet  me.  Of  course,  I  was 
glad  that  he  was  glad,  and  expressed  reciprocity  of 
sentiments.  I  looked  at  him  —  well,  for  lack  of  a  bet- 
ter word,  I  will  say,  wuth  affection ;  you  know  the  kind 
of  child-like,  simple  admiration  which  expresses  so 
much.  I  tried  to  look  at  him  as  a  certain  little  girl 
would  have  done,  who  wrote :  "  You  are  like  my  gov- 
erness :  she,  too,  knows  everything."  I  felt  sure  that 
that  attitude  was  a  better  one  than  to  pretend  that  I 
vsas  overawed.  That  sort  of  homage  he  must  receive 
every  day.  Besides,  as  soon  as  I  realised  that  he  knew 
nothing  of  the  telephone  message  from  and  to  Allen- 
stein,  my  old  self-assurance  had  returned. 

Now  for  my  impressions  of  Germany's  —  and,  as 
some  people  try  to  make  us  believe,  the  world's  —  great- 
est military  genius.  They  might  be  summed  up  in  two 
words:  "Strength  and  cruelty."  Hindenburg  stands 
over  six  feet  high.  His  whole  personality  radiates 
strength,  brute,  animal  strength.  He  was,  when  I  met 
him,  sixty-nine  j^ears  of  age,  but  looked  very  much 
younger.  His  hair  and  moustache  were  still  pepper 
and  salt  colour.  His  face  and  forehead  are  deeply  fur- 
rowed, which  adds  to  his  forbidding  appearance.  His 
nose  and  chin  are  prominent,  but  the  most  striking  fea- 
ture of  the  man's  whole  appearance  are  his  eyes.  They 
are  steel-blue  and  very  small,  much  too  small  for  his 
head,  which,  in  turn,  is  much  too  small  compared  with 
his  large  body.  But  what  the  eyes  lacked  in  size  they 
fully  made  up  for  in  intensity  and  penetrating  powers. 
Until  I  met  Hindenburg  I  always  thought  that  the  eyes 
of  the  Mexican  rebel  Villa  were  the  worst  and  most  cruel 
I  had  ever  seen.     They  are  mild  compared  with  those 


170  BEHIND  THE  GERMAN  VEIL 

of  Hindenburg.     Never  in  all  my  life  have  I  seen 

SUCH  HARD,  CRUEL,  NAY,  SUCH  UTTERLY  BRUTAL  EYES 

AS  THOSE  OF  HiNDENBURG.  Tlic  momcnt  I  looked  at 
him  I  believed  every  story  of  refined  (and  unrefined) 
cruelty  I  had  ever  heard  about  him. 

He  has  the  disagreeable  habit  of  looking  at  you  as  if 
he  did  not  believe  a  word  you  said.  Frequently  in  con- 
versation he  closes  his  eyes,  but  even  then  it  seemed  as 
if  their  steel-like  sharpness  pierced  his  eyelids.  Instead 
of  deep  circles,  such  as,  for  instance,  I  have  noticed  on 
the  Kaiser,  he  has  big  fat  cushions  of  flesh  under  his 
eyes,  which  accentuate  their  smallness.  When  he  closes 
his  eyes,  these  cushions  almost  touch  his  bushy  eye- 
brows and  give  his  face  a  somewhat  prehistoric  appear- 
ance. His  hair,  about  an  inch  long  I  should  judge, 
was  brushed  straight  up  —  what  the  French  call  en 
brosse.  The  general  contour  of  his  head  seemed  that  of 
a  square,  rounded  off  at  the  comers. 

Speaking  about  the  stories  of  cinielty,  one  or  two  of 
them  may  bear  re-telling. 

When  during  the  heavy  fighting,  early  in  1915,  Gen- 
eral Rennenkampf  was  forced  to  evacuate  Insterburg 
somewhat  hastily,  he  was  unable  to  find  transport  for 
about  fifty  thousand  loaves  of  bread.  Not  feeling  in- 
clined to  make  a  present  of  them  to  the  Germans,  he 
ordered  paraffin  to  be  poured  over  them.  When  the 
Germans  found  that  bread  and  discovered  its  condition, 
Hindenburg  is  reported  to  have  been  frantic  with  rage. 
The  next  day,  after  he  had  calmed  down,  he  said  to  one 
of  his  aides :  "  Well,  it  seems  to  be  a  matter  of  taste. 
If  the  Russians  like  their  bread  that  way,  very  well. 

GrVE  IT  TO  THE  RuSSIAN  PRISONERS." 

You  may  feel  certain  that  his  orders  were  scrupu- 
lously carried  out. 


HINDENBURG  171 

Another  incident  which  thej  are  very  fond  of  relat- 
ing in  Germany  is  more  amusing,  though  it  also  plays 
on  their  idol's  cruelty. 

It  is  a  fact  that  both  officers  and  men  are  deadly 
afraid  of  him.  It  is  said  that  the  great  General  has  a 
special  predilection  for  bringing  the  tip  of  his  riding 
boots  into  contact  with  certain  parts  of  the  human 
anatomy.  A  private  would  far  rather  face  day  and 
night  the  Russian  guns  than  be  orderly  to  Hindenburg. 

But  one  day  a  man  came  up  and  offered  himself  for 
the  job. 

"And  what  are  you  in  private  life.^  "  the  General 
snorted  at  him. 

"  At  your  orders,  sir,  I  am  a  wild  animal  trainer." 

Hindenburg  and  I  talked  for  about  twenty  minutes 
on  various  subjects  —  Holland,  Italy,  America,  and,  of 
course,  the  campaign. 

When  he  tried  to  point  out  to  me  how  all-important 
it  was  for  Holland  that  German}^  should  crush  Eng- 
land's "  world-domination,"  I  mentioned  the  Dutch 
Colonies.  That  really  set  him  going,  "  Colonies,"  he 
shouted.  "  Pah !  I  am  sick  of  all  this  talk  about 
colonies.  It  would  be  better  for  people,  and  I  am  not 
referring  to  our  enemies  alone,  to  pay  more  attention  to 
events  in  Europe.  I  say  '  to  the  devil '  (zum  Teufel) 
with  the  colonies.  Let  us  first  safeguard  our  own  coun- 
try ;  the  colonics  will  follow.  It  is  here,"  and  he  went 
up  to  a  large  map  of  Poland  hanging  on  the  wall,  and 
laid  a  hand  almost  as  large  as  a  medium-sized  breakfast 
tray  over  the  centre  of  it  — "  It  is  here,"  he  continued, 
"  that  European  and  colonial  affairs  will  be  settled  and 
nowhere  else.  As  far  as  the  colonies  are  concerned,  it 
will  be  a  matter  of  a  foot  for  a  mile,  as  long  as  we  hold 
large  slices  of  enemy  territory." 


173  BEHIND  THE  GERMAN  VEIL 

He  spoke  with  great  respect  of  the  Russian  soldier, 
but  maintained  that  they  lacked  proper  leaders.  "  It 
takes  more  than  ten  years  to  reform  the  morale  of  an 
officers'  corps.  From  what  I  have  learned,  the  morale 
of  the  Russian  officer  is  to  this  day  much  the  same 
as  it  was  in  the  Russo-Japanese  war.  We  will  show 
you  one  of  their  ambulance  trains  captured  near  Kir- 
baty.  It  is  the  last  word  in  luxury.  By  all  means 
give  your  wounded  all  the  comfort,  all  the  attention  you 
can ;  but  I  do  not  think  that  car-loads  of  champagne, 
oysters,  caviare  and  the  finest  French  liqueurs  are  nec- 
essary adjuncts  to  an  ambulance  train.  The  Russian 
soldier  is  splendid,  but  his  discipline  is  not  of  the  same 
quality  as  that  of  our  men.  In  our  armies  discipline  is 
the  result  of  spiritual  and  moral  training;  in  the  Rus- 
sian armies  discipline  stands  for  dumb  obedience.  The 
Russian  soldier  remains  at  his  post  because  he  has  been 
ordered  to  stay  there,  and  he  stands  as  if  nailed  to  the 
spot.  What  Napoleon  I.  said  still  applies  to-day : 
'  It  is  not  sufficient  to  kill  a  Russian,  you  have  to  throw 
him  over  as  well.' 

"  It  is  absurd,"  the  General  continued,  "  for  the 
enemy  Press  to  compare  this  campaign  with  that  of 
Napoleon  in  1812."  Again  he  got  up,  and  pointing  to 
another  map,  he  said :  "  This  is  what  will  win  the  war 
for  us."  The  map  showed  the  close  railroad  net  of 
Eastern  Germany  and  the  paucity  of  permanent  roads 
in  Russia.  Hindenburg  is  almost  a  crank  on  the  sub- 
ject of  railroads  in  connection  with  strategy.  In  the 
early  days  of  the  war  he  shuffled  his  army  corps  about 
from  one  corner  of  Poland  to  the  other.  It  is  said  that 
he  transferred  four  army  corps  (160,000  men  —  about 
600  trains)  in  two  days  from  Kalish,  in  Western 
Poland,  to  Tannenberg,  a  distance  of  nearly  two  hun- 


HINDENBURG  173 

dred  miles.  On  some  tracks  the  trains  followed  each 
other  at  intervals  of  six  minutes. 

"  Our  enemies  reckon  without  two  great  factors  un- 
known in  Napoleon's  time :  railroads  and  German  organ- 
isation. Next  to  artillery  this  war  means  railroads, 
railroads,  and  then  still  more  railroads.  The  Russians 
built  forts ;  we  built  railroads.  They  would  have  spent 
their  millions  better  if  they  had  emulated  our  policy 
instead  of  spending  millions  on  forts.  For  the  present 
fortresses  are  of  no  value  against  modern  siege  guns  — 
at  least,  not  until  another  military  genius  such  as 
Vauban,  Brialmont,  Montalembert,  Coehoorn,  springs 
up,  who  will  be  able  to  invent  proper  defensive  meas- 
ures against  heavy  howitzers. 

"  Another  delusion  under  which  our  enemies  are  la- 
bouring is  that  of  Russia's  colossal  supply  of  men.  He 
who  fights  with  Russia  must  always  expect  superiority 
in  numbers ;  but  in  this  age  of  science,  strategy  and 
organisation,  numbers  are  only  decisive,  '  all  else  being 
equal.'  The  Russian  forces  opposed  to  us  on  this  front 
have  always  been  far  superior  in  numbers  to  ours,  but 
we  are  not  afraid  of  that.  A  crowd  of  men  fully  armed 
and  equipped  does  not  make  an  army  in  these  days." 

This  brought  him  to  the  subject  of  the  British  forces, 
more  especially  Kitchener's  army.  "  It  is  a  great  mis- 
take to  underestimate  your  enemy,"  said  Hindenburg, 
referring  to  the  continual  slights  and  attacks  appearing 
in  the  German  Press.  "  I  by  no  means  underrate  the 
thoroughness,  the  fighting  qualities  of  the  British  sol- 
dier. England  is  a  fighting  nation,  and  has  won  her 
spurs  on  many  battlefields.  But  to-day  they  are  up 
against  a  different  problem.  Even  supposing  that 
Kitchener  should  be  able  to  raise  his  army  of  several 
millions,  where  is  he  going  to  get  his  officers  and  his 


174  BEHIND  THE  GERMAN  VEIL 

non-commissioned  officers  from?  How  is  he  going  to 
train  them,  so  to  speak,  overnight,  when  it  has  taken  us 
several  generations  of  uninterrupted  instruction,  study 
and  work  to  create  an  efficient  staff?  Let  me  empha- 
sise, and  with  all  the  force  I  can :  *  Efficiency  and  train- 
ing are  everything.'  There  lies  their  difficulty.  I  have 
many  officers  here  with  me  who  have  fought  opposite 
the  English,  and  all  are  united  in  their  opinion  that 
they  are  brave  and  worthy  opponents ;  but  one  criti- 
cism was  also  unanimously  made:  'Their  officers  often 
lead  their  men  needlessly  to  death,  either  from  sheer 
foolhardiness,  but  more  often  through  inefficiency.'  " 

Although  he  did  not  express  this  opinion  to  me  per- 
sonally, I  have  it  on  excellent  authority  that  Hinden- 
burg  believes  tliis  war  will  last  close  on  four  years  at 
least.  And  the  result  — ■■  stalemate.  He  does  not  be- 
lieve that  the  Allies  will  be  able  to  push  the  Germans 
out  of  Belgium,  France  or  Poland. 

Personally,  I  found  it  impossible  to  get  him  to  make 
any  definite  statement  on  the  probable  outcome  and 
duration  of  the  war.  "  Until  we  have  gained  an  hon- 
ourable peace,"  was  his  cryptic  reply.  He  refused  to 
state  what,  in  his  opinion,  constituted  an  honourable 
peace.  If  I  am  to  believe  several  of  his  officers  —  and 
I  discussed  the  subject  almost  every  day  —  then  Hin- 
denburg  must  by  now  be  a  very  disappointed  man.  I 
was  told  that  he  calculated  as  a  practical  certainty  on 
a  separate  peace  with  Russia  soon  after  the  fall  of 
Warsaw.  (I  should  like  to  point  out  here  that  this 
"  separate  peace  with  Russia "  idea  was  one  of  the 
most  popular  and  universal  topics  of  conversation  in 
Germany  last  year.) 

When  Hindenburg  learnt  that  I  had  come  all  the 


HINDENBURG  175 

way  from  Berlin  without  a  pass  from  the  General  Staff, 
he  appeared  very  much  amused ;  but  in  a  quasi-serious 
manner  he  said: 

''  Well,  you  know  that  I  ought  to  send  you  back  at 
once,  otherwise  I  shall  risk  getting  the  sack  myself; 
still,  as  all  ordinary  train-sendee  between  here  and 
Posen  will  be  suspended  for  four  days,  the  only  way 
for  you  to  get  back  is  by  motor-car.  It  would  be  a 
pity  to  come  all  the  way  from  sunny  Italy  to  this  Si- 
berian cold,  and  not  see  something  of  the  men  and  of 
the  hardships  of  a  Russian  winter  campaign.  Travel- 
ling by  motor-car,  you  will  have  ample  opportunity'  to 
see  something  of  the  country,  and,  if  you  feel  so  in- 
clined, of  the  fighting  as  well.  And  then  go  home  and 
tell  them  abroad  about  the  insurmountable  obstacles, 
the  enormous  difficulties  the  German  army  has  to  over- 
come." 

Hindenburg  does  not  like  the  Berlin  General  Staff 
officer,  and  that  is  why  he  was  so  amused  at  my  having 
got  the  better  of  them.  He  describes  them  as  "  draw- 
ing-room "  officers,  who  remain  safely  in  Berlin.  With 
their  spick  and  span  uniforms  they  look  askance  at 
their  mud-stained  colleagues  at  the  front.  His  officers, 
who  know  Hindenburg's  feelings  towards  these  gentle- 
men, play  many  a  practical  joke  on  their  Berlin  coU'- 
freres.  The  latter  have  frequently  returned  from  a 
visit  to  some  communication  trenches  only  to  find  that 
their  car  has  mysteriously  retreated  some  two  or  three 
miles  .  .   .  over  Polish  roads. 

Any  one  who  can  tell  of  such  an  experience  befalling 
a  "  Salon  Offizier  "  is  sure  to  raise  a  good  laugh  from 
Hindenburg. 

At  the  conclusion  of  our  conversation  he  instructed 
the  young  A.D.C.   to  take  me  over  to  Headquarters 


176  BEHIND  THE  GERMAN  VEIL 

and  present  me  to  Captain  Cammerer.  "  Tell  him," 
and  I  inscribed  the  words  that  followed  deeply  on  my 
mind,  "  to  be  kind  to  Hcrr  Beaufort." 

My  introduction  to  Cammerer  proved  to  be  one  of 
those  curious  vagaries  of  fate.  He  was  the  very  man 
who  less  than  twenty-four  hours  ago  had  spoken  with 
General  von  SchliefFen,  and  who  had  assured  him  how 
impossible  it  was  for  me  to  continue,  and  that  I  was 
to  be  sent  back  to  Berlin  at  once ! 

"  Beaufort,  Beaufort,"  he  sniffed  once  or  twice  before 
he  could  place  me.  Then  suddenly  he  remembered. 
"  Ah,  yes,  him !  You  are  the  man  General  von  Schlief- 
fen  telephoned  about  yesterda}'?  But  did  he  not  in- 
struct you  to  return  to  Berlin?  " 

However,  I  remembered  Hindenburg's  injunction: 
"  Tell  Cammerer  to  be  kind  to  him,"  so  what  did  I  care 
for  a  mere  captain  ? 

Consequently,  as  they  say  in  the  moving  pictures,  I 
"  registered  "  my  most  angelic  smile,  and  sweetly  said : 

"  Ah,  yes,  captain,  quite  so,  quite  so.  But,  you  see, 
I  felt  certain  that  there  was  some  misunderstanding  at 
this  end  of  the  wire.  Probably  it  was  not  clearly  ex- 
plained to  you  that  I  had  this  very  important  letter  of 
introduction  to  General  von  Hindenburg  from  my  friend 
his  nephew.  As  you  see,"  and  I  waved  my  hand  at  the 
A.D.C.,  my  master  of  ceremonies,  "  I  was  quite  right  in 
my  surmise." 

However  that  may  be,  you  may  be  certain  that  I  saw 
to  it  that  when  we  mapped  out  my  return  journey, 
Cammerer  was  being  "  kind  "  to  me.  Consequently,  I 
spent  two  most  interesting  weeks  in  the  German  Eastern 
war-zones,  much  to  the  surprise  and  disgust  of  the 
"  Drawing-room  Staff  "  in  Berlin. 


CHAPTER  XXIII 

LOTZEN 

IT  was  about  two  in  the  afternoon  when  I  returned  to 
the  "  Kaiserhof,"  and,  needless  to  sa}^,  I  was  in  a 
most  reckless  mood.  The  world  in  general,  and  the 
Eastern  front  in  particular,  seemed  once  more  at  my 
feet.     I  felt  happy  and  contented. 

At  the  hotel  several  staff  officers  came  up  and  "  most 
obediently "  presented  themselves.  We  discussed  the 
war  and  everything  pertaining  to  it  over  some  atrocious 
brandy,  misnamed  French  cognac.  Right  here  I  should 
like  to  record  my  impression  that  one  of  Germany's 
greatest  disappointments,  next  to  her  failure  to  reach 
Paris,  was  Russia's  stubborn  resistance.  There  at 
Lotzen,  amongst  men  surely  as  well  informed  as  any 
with  regard  to  conditions  in  Russia,  there  were  very 
few  who  expected  her  to  hold  out  beyond  Christmas 
(1915).  Not  only  did  they  expect  an  absolute  mili- 
tary debacle,  but  they  claimed  that  her  political  con- 
dition was  such  that  the  people  before  long  would  rise 
en  masse  against  the  military  regime.  Much  was  ex- 
pected from  the  many  German  ramifications  in  Russia, 
which  seem  to  be  more  extensive  than  people  in  other 
countries  realise.  Germany  calculated,  and  I  am  sure 
does  so  still,  on  a  separate  peace  with  Russia. 

This  attitude  was  rather  astonishing  to  me,  because  I 
know  that  the  German  General  Staff  is  in  closer  touch 
with  affairs  in  Russia  than  in  any  other  belligerent 
country. 

Paswell,  whom  I  have  mentioned  elsewhere,  also  told 
me  that  a  revolution  was  imminent.     He  assured  me 

177 


178  BEHIND  THE  GERMAN  VEIL 

that  the  Russians  were  getting  very  tired  of  bearing  the 
whole  brunt  of  this  war,  and  of  being  expected  to  march 
to  Berlin  while  the  Western  Allies  were  simply  sitting 
tight.  He  claimed  that  Petrograd  was  of  the  opinion 
that  the  Western  Allies  could  have  seriously  menaced, 
if  not  entirely  prevented,  the  great  German  Eastern  of- 
fensive. My  informant,  who,  as  I  have  already  said, 
was  intimately  acquainted  with  the  country,  declared 
that  there  had  grown  up  a  most  warm  and  loyal  feeling 
towards  Japan.  The  semi-official  Novoe  Fremya  re- 
marked editorially  that  in  case  of  a  Japanese  war  with 
a  "  certain  great  Power,"  she  could  count  on  Russia's 
gratitude.  JajDan  is  said  to  have  sent  one  hundred  and 
forty  large  siege  guns,  with  full  Japanese  personnel,  to 
the  Russian  front. 

In  Lotzen,  which  is  in  the  centre  of  the  Masurian 
Lake  district,  where  heavy  fighting  took  place  last  year, 
bright  yellow  posters  were  displayed  at  different  cor- 
ners, on  the  station  walls,  and  on  almost  every  house 
outside  the  little  town.  They  were  "  Instructions  to 
Scavengers."  A  list  was  given  of  the  approximate  re- 
wards for  arms  and  material  found  on  the  battle-fields, 
and  in  the  same  breath  dire  threats  of  fines  and  impris- 
onments against  all  those  who  did  not  at  once  give  up 
everything  of  military  value  found  anywhere  on  the  field 
of  operations. 

I  subsequently  noticed  those  yellow  pasters  wherever 
we  went  during  my  trip  along  the  Eastern  front,  in 
Poland  as  well  as  in  East  Prussia.  They  were  usually 
displayed  in  triplicate  —  i.e.,  in  German,  Polish  and 
Russian. 

I  have  seen  them  mentioned  in  the  Allied  newspapers 
as  if  these  scavenger  orders  and  regulations  were  of 
recent  institution.     They  were  looked  upon  as  a  sign 


LOTZEN  179 

that  Germany  is  beginning  to  feel  the  pinch.  All  I  can 
say  is,  that  such  orders  were  promulgated  the  day  war 
started.  I  saw  some  of  them  dated  August  12th,  1914. 
The  rewards  offered  are  very  meagre.  Usually  the 
material  is  taken  to  the  nearest  town  hall,  where  it  is 
valued,  and  the  finder  receives  one  per  cent,  reward. 
It  takes  an  awful  lot  of  scrap  iron  and  steel  to  repre- 
sent one  hundred  marks  —  i.e.,  one  mark  (24  cents) 
reward.  Of  course,  the  natives  soon  found  that  it  was 
hardly  worth  while  to  pick  up  things,  unless  you  could 
do  it  by  the  cart-load.  The  result  was  that  in  many 
places  we  passed  through,  where  the  fighting  had  been 
very  intense,  the  ground  was  simply  strewn  with  battle 
remnants  of  all  sorts  —  cannon,  rifles,  swords,  lances, 
shell-cases,  machine-guns,  axles,  etc.,  etc.  I  must  plead 
guilty  to  having  been  a  souvenir  hunter  in  those  early 
days,  so  I  collected  a  splendid  number  of  relics.  Alas ! 
subsequent  events  in  Berlin,  which  necessitated  a  some- 
what hurried  departure,  forced  me  to  leave  the  major 
part  of  my  luggage  behind. 

In  the  afternoon  an  amusing  incident  took  place  in 
the  public  dining-room  of  the  hotel.  "  The  Kaiserhof  " 
at  Lotzen  is  a  sort  of  half-way  house  for  officers  who 
are  going  on  or  returning  from  leave.  A  mud-stained 
young  lieutenant  of  the  reserve  straight  from  the 
trenches  dropped  in  at  the  hotel  and  ordered  a  meal. 
When  it  came  there  was  no  bread  with  it.  He  ordered 
some  and  was  asked  for  his  bread-ticket.  Of  course, 
not  having  slept  in  the  hotel  the  previous  night,  he  had 
none.  Weil,  no  ticket,  no  bread.  He  called  for  the 
head  waiter,  then  for  the  manager,  and  raised  a  fine  old 
rumpus.  I  never  saw  a  man  so  mad,  not  even  a  Ger- 
man. He  raised  heaven  and  earth,  and  swore  like  a 
regular  trooper  (German  version).  His  "  Himmel- 
kreuzdonnerwetterrrrrrrrrrrs  .  .  ."  rolled  through  the 


180  BEHIND  THE  GERMAN  VEIL 

dining-room  of  the  dingy  place  like  a  machine-gun  on 
corrugated-iron  trench  roofs. 

"  Here  we  are  getting  killed  for  3'ou  beastly  canaille," 
he  shouted  at  the  landlord  and  his  assistant,  "  and  when 
we  come  from  the  trenches  we  can't  even  get  a  piece  of 
bread,  and  this  all  through  your  damned  red  tape." 

Now  the  young  lieutenant,  when  he  started  the  row, 
evidently  did  not  know  that  the  other  half  of  the  hotel 
was  reserved  for  tiie  officers  of  Hindenburg's  Staff. 
Some  of  them  heard  the  noise  and  sent  for  the  landlord. 
When  they  learned  about  the  young  lieutenant,  a  Staff 
captain  entered  the  dining-room.  The  reserve  lieu- 
tenant swallowed  the  other  half  of  his  oath,  jumped  into 
position,  napkin  tucked  under  his  chin,  got  very  red, 
and,  to  all  appearances,  felt  most  uncomfortable.  He 
behaved  just  like  a  naughty  schoolboy  caught  red- 
handed  by  his  master.  And  then  the  Staff  captain  had 
his  say,  and  the  poor  lieutenant,  or  what  was  left  of 
him,  continued  his  breadless  meal  in  silence,  paid  for  his 
bill,  and  forthwith  departed.  I  think  of  the  lot  he  had 
my  sympathies. 

Numbers  of  Russian  prisoners  were  working  in  the 
streets  shovelling  snow,  all  their  worldly  belongings 
slung  in  a  haversack  on  their  backs.  Only  a  few  of 
them  looked  unhappy.  The  "  Nitchewo  "  ("  no-mat- 
ter ")  spirit  seems  to  be  their  greatest  and  never-failing 
comfort.  They  worked  away,  talked  and  smiled  at  each 
other,  and  seemed  on  excellent  terms  with  their  guards. 
What  fine  fellows  they  were ! 

During  that  trip  I  saw  several  Russians  over  six  feet 
six  in  height ;  six-footers  were  common  amongst  them. 
What  excellent  fighting  material !  But  there  was  noth- 
ing of  the  tragic,  hungry,  hunted  look  in  their  faces 
which  I  have  noticed  again  and  again  on  the  Western 


LOTZEN  181 

front,  in  the  faces  of  German  prisoners.  Those  Rus- 
sians, at  least  the  majority  of  them,  appeared  con- 
tented and  satisfied. 

But,  then,  the  Russian  soldier  is  a  philosopher. 

The  name  "  Lotzen  "  will  always  be  identified  in  my 
mind  with  one  of  the  funniest  war  pictures  I  have  wit- 
nessed during  the  two  years  I  spent  wandering  through 
the  various  belligerent  countries. 

There  were  about  twenty  officers  staying  at  the  little 
hotel.  Fifteen  of  these  were  allowed  to  go  to  bed  "  im 
ganzen  " —  i.e.,  freely  translated,  "  entirely,"  "  alto- 
gether " ;  really  meaning  that  they  were  permitted  to 
undress  fully.  Of  course,  the  majority  of  them  profited 
by  this  permission  and  went  to  bed  fairly  early.  (On 
campaign,  as  every  soldier  will  tell  you,  it  is  a  golden 
rule  to  sleep  and  eat  whenever  you  have  the  chance.) 

Having  travelled  the  greater  part  of  the  previous 
night,  I,  of  course,  made  my  excuses  early.  I  was  in 
bed  by  ten.  Shortly  before  midnight  I  was  awakened 
by  a  commotion  in  the  corridor.  There  was  a  tre- 
mendous hullabaloo,  running  and  talking.  Fearing 
that  the  old  ramshackle  wooden  structure  was  on  fire,  I 
quickly  jumped  out  of  bed,  and  clad  in  my  pyjamas  and 
dressing-gown,  proceeded  downstairs.  I  heard  voices 
in  the  mess-room,  so  thither  I  went.  When  I  opened 
the  door  I  was  almost  struck  dumb.  If  I  live  to  be  a 
hundred  I  shall  not  forget  that  sight.  There  were  nine 
officers  in  the  room,  ranging  in  age  from  twenty-five  to 
fifty,  I  should  judge,  every  single  one  of  them  dressed 
in  the  classic  German  garment  of  respectability  —  a 
long  night-gown.  Some  of  them  still  held  their  burning 
candlesticks ;  three  of  them  wore  a  "  Schnurrbartbinde  " 
(moustache  bandage,  put  on  at  night  to  preserve  the 
correct  shape) ;  two  of  them  wore  a  common  red  and 


182  BEHIND  THE  GERMAN  VEIL 

brown  check  flannel  dressing-gown.  They  were  all 
crowding  round  a  young  Staff  officer,  who  was  reading 
aloud  a  despatch  from  General  Mackensen.  The  news 
that  had  roused  the  Staff  in  such  unmartial  gear  from 
their  beds,  was  that  twenty-two  thousand  Russians, 
including  two  Generals,  had  been  taken  prisoner  some- 
where or  other  in  Poland,  about  one  hundred  miles 
away. 

I  felt  very  much  out  of  it  in  the  solitary  splendour 
of  my  py j  amas ;  much  more  so  than  I  did  when  fully 
dressed.  They  read  the  despatch  to  me,  of  course,  but 
I  don't  think  they  approved  of  my  appearance.  As  the 
author  of  "  Elisabeth  and  her  German  Garden  "  would 
say,  they  cannot  understand  the  idea  of  putting  on  a 
coat  and  trousers  on  going  to  bed. 

The  picture  of  those  nine  night-gowned  German 
officers, —  some  of  the  nighties  had  red  cross-stitch 
borders  and  little  tasselled  neck  cords  —  their  big  un- 
gainly feet  in  large  felt  slippers,  their  hair  all  rumpled 
up,  the  old  major  with  the  tassels  of  his  soiled  flannel 
dressing-gown  dangling  and  dancing  behind  him,  an  eld- 
erly captain  wearing  a  nightcap,  the  curious  effect  of 
light  and  shade  caused  by  the  lighted  candles,  and  tht 
way  they  were  held  —  well,  it  is  one  of  the  few  really 
bright  and  humorous  spots  on  this  great  tragic  canvae 
of  war. 


CHAPTER  XXIV 

EN    ROUTE 

THE  day  following  iny  meeting  with  Hindenburg, 
a  Staff  officer,  Captain  Wagner,  called  at  my 
hotel  with  a  powerful  military  automobile,  with  two 
men  seated  in  front. 

Our  start  was  bad. 

I  almost  infuriated  my  guide.  He  was  a  man  at  least 
fifteen  years  my  senior,  and  I  insisted,  or  at  least  tried 
to  insist,  on  his  sitting  on  my  right-hand  side.  But  he 
would  not  hear  of  it,  and,  finally,  in  exasperation  ex- 
claimed :  "  Aber  ich  bitte  doch,  mein  Herr,  wir  kennen 
ja  unsere  Manieren  "  ("  But  I  beg  of  you,  sir,  we  know 
our  manners").  Of  course,  his  protests  were  accom- 
panied by  salutes  and  heel-clicking.  "  Oh,  Lord,"  I 
thought,  "  this  is  really  too  much.  A  representative  of 
a  British  newspaper  arguing  with  a  German  officer 
about  precedence." 

Well,  far  was  it  from  me  to  make  him  feel  bad,  and  so, 
amidst  the  wondering  gaze  of  many  bystanders,  both 
military  and  civil,  I  took  my  seat,  and  off  we  went  to- 
wards Goldap. 

The  journey  itself  took  us  the  better  part  of  three 
hours.  Again  I  had  occasion  to  notice  what  a  bleak, 
barren,  desolate  country  East  Prussia  is.  One  might 
have  imagined  oneself  somewhere  in  the  prairies  of 
Saskatchewan,  or  any  other  Western  Canadian  prov- 
ince in  winter-time.  Sometimes  we  drove  for  miles  with- 
out seeing  any  sign  of  habitation.  The  roads  were  well 
built,  and,  in  most  places,  though  it  had  been  snowing 

off  and  on  for  several  weeks,  in  excellent  condition. 

183 


184  BEHIND  THE  GERMAN  VEIL 

Large  transports  of  prisoners  were  the  most  notable 
feature  of  the  journc}'.  There  must  have  been  thou- 
sands and  thousands  of  them.  Frequently  the  com- 
mander of  the  prison  transport,  at  sight  of  our  car,  and 
on  hearing  the  Staff  signal,  "  Ta-ri-ta-ta,"  not  only 
ordered  a  halt,  but  made  the  prisoners  turn  about,  so 
that  their  backs  were  towards  the  car,  while  the  convoy 
with  loaded  rifles  stood  guard  behind  them.  I  asked 
my  companion  the  why  and  the  wherefore  of  this,  and 
he  explained  that  they  had  had  trouble  now  and  then 
with  certain  of  the  Russian  prisoners,  who,  for  some 
reason  or  other,  aroused  from  their  phlegmatism,  had 
attacked  their  guards  and  officers.  I  did  not  like  this 
arrangement  at  all.  I  heard  many  stories  of  whole 
Russian  battalions  deserting  and  presenting  themselves 
at  the  German  outposts,  performing  there,  like  so  many 
trained  animals,  the  classic  trick  of  bringing  the  right 
hand  up  to  their  mouth,  at  the  same  time  chewing  a 
very  imaginary  bit  of  food.  "  Yes,  sir,"  so  I  was  told 
many  times,  "  they  came  in  large  herds,  and  all  had  the 
same  dumb  story  to  tell." 

Huh !  that  reminds  me  somewhat  of  incidents  at  the 
Belgian  front.  There  every  German  prisoner  was  a 
"  Familienvater,  vier  Kinder,  vier!"  ("father  of  a 
family,  four  children"),  and  the  number  of  children 
frequently  increased  in  the  same  ratio  as  the  fears  and 
uncertainties  of  the  prisoner.  But  to  return  to  our 
Russian  friends.  Here  is  a  good  story  I  heard  from 
my  captain  guide.  A  few  weeks  before  my  visit  to  the 
East,  they  had  caught  in  the  German  lines  a  Russian 
officer  in  civilian  clothes.  What  do  you  suppose  hap- 
pened to  him?  Shot  as  a  spy,  of  course,  you  say. 
You  are  quite  mistaken.  How  can  you  think  such  an 
inhuman  thing  of  the  gentle  Huns?  Why,  that  Rus- 
sian officer  had  only  dressed  himself  in  civilian  clothes 


EN  ROUTE  185 

because  he  was  hungry  and  wanted  to  reach  the  Ger- 
man lines !  Of  course,  nothing  happened  to  him,  ex- 
cept that  he  was  promptly  fed! 

And  the  captain  believed  this  story  himself ! 

On  several  occasions  I  stopped  the  car,  got  out,  and 
took  photographs  of  some  of  the  prisoners.  (I  had  no 
permit  to  carry  a  camera,  but  what  matter.  A  German 
military  car  and  a  captain  in  uniform  cover  a  multitude 
of  sins.)  I  did  not  pick  out  any  specially  striking- 
looking  specimens,  but  simply  snapped  them  as  they 
came  along.  I  think  that  the  result  bears  witness  that 
they  showed  no  signs  of  having  been  starved.  On  the 
contrary,  the  majority  of  the  men  I  saw  seemed  in 
splendid  condition,  and  I  must  add,  did  not  appear  to 
be  very  unhappy  either.  Most  of  them  smiled  pleas- 
antly, and  looked  like  great  big  faithful  St.  Bernards, 
with  their  large,  soft  brown  eyes.  There  was  nothing 
fierce  about  them.  "  Nitchewo "  ("  no  matter ") 
seemed  stamped  on  most  of  their  faces.  For  them  the 
war  was  over.  They  had  done  their  bit,  risked  and 
given  their  all,  and  what  more  can  man  do.^*  I  should 
have  liked  to  shake  their  hands  one  and  all,  and  give 
them  a  few  words  of  hope  and  encouragement.  Not 
that  they  needed  it,  at  least,  not  just  then.  I  spoke 
to  several,  and  I  did  not  come  across  one  that  would  not 
have  answered  a  thundering  "  No  "  if  I  had  asked  him : 
"  Are  we  downhearted.?  "  Their  bearing  and  discipline 
seemed  excellent.  Any  man  I  addressed  impaediately 
jumped  to  attention. 

Goldap  —  a  small  East  Prussian  country  town  of 
some  five  or  six  thousand  inhabitants  —  looked  a  bit 
upset.  There  had  been  considerable  fighting  in  the 
streets  and  the  neighbourhood.  The  Town  Hall  was 
destroyed,  so  was  the  only  hotel,  and  the  whole  of  one 


186  BEHIND  THE  GERMAN  VEIL 

side  of  the  market-place.  The  odour  was  not  very 
pleasant,  I  must  say,  and  evidently  the  process  of  clean- 
ing had  not  j^et  begun.  It  needed  it  badly,  because  one 
could  smell  the  offensive  stench  of  dead  bodies  for  miles 
around. 

However,  it  is  not  of  that  I  think  when  I  recall 
Goldap.  The  captain  motored  me  round  the  litth; 
town,  and  showed  me  the  "  terrible  devastation  the  Rus- 
sians had  wrought  here,"  a  devastation  which,  by  the 
way,  compares  with  the  condition  of  some  of  the  Belgian 
towns  I  have  seen,  like  an  English  garden  compares  with 
a  prairie.  He  took  me  to  divisional  headquarters, 
where  I  was  presented  to  several  officers  of  the  Staff, 
and  invited  to  stay  to  lunch.  I  was  shown  several 
rooms  in  which  the  Russian  General  Staff  had  had  their 
offices.  A  number  of  papers  had  been  left  behind,  and 
orders  had  been  given  that  nothing  was  to  be  touched. 

On  one  of  the  writing-tables  I  noticed  a  postcard  with 
the  picture  of  a  young  girl  in  a  riding  habit  standing 
next  to  a  Siberian  pony.  The  girl  looked  about  seven- 
teen to  eighteen,  and  was  very  pretty.  Underneath  it 
was  written :  "  Au  revoir,  au  rcvoir  very  soon,  dear 
father." 

It  is  curious  how  small  things  sometimes  make  such 
a  deep  impression  on  one's  mind.  To  me  Goldap,  that 
first  day  full  of  so  many  different  and  fresh  experiences, 
right  in  the  midst  of  the  enemy,  is  represented  in  my 
mind  by  that  little  postcard  and  its  tender  message: 
"  Au  revoir,  au  revoir  very  soon,  dear  father." 

I  was  not  given  the  opportunity  to  be  alone  with  that 
card,  otherwise  I  would  have  ""  collected  "  it. 

Many  thoughts,  which  I  agree  should  not  have  been 
in  the  mind  of  a  purely  objective  observer  in  search  of 
news  and  facts,  crowded  into  my  heart  and  brain: 
"Would  there  be  an  '  au  revoir'  on  this  side.?     Was 


EN  ROUTE  187 

the  colonel  perhaps  amongst  the  prisoners  I  had  met 
that  morning  on  the  road?  or  was  he  sleeping  in  the 
marshes  of  East  Prussia,  drowned  like  a  rat  in  a  trap? 
or  had  a  decent  bullet  found  its  target  in  his  heart?  " 

"  Au  revoir,  au  revoir  very  soon,  dear   father." 

How  many,  many  thousands  have  written  those  lines 
since  the  beginning  of  this  struggle,  and  who  will  never 
touch  the  beloved  hands  and  lips  again ! 

Indeed,  "  War  is  Hell." 

I  suppose  this  digression  is  very  un-British.  Well, 
if  so,  it  can't  be  helped.  That  photograph  haunted  me 
for  days  and  days. 

In  the  afternoon  we  drove  on  to  Suwalki  across  the 
border  in  Poland.  The  most  prominent  feature  of  the 
landscape  was  the  endless  procession  of  sleighs  carry- 
ing the  wounded.  Very  noticeable  was  the  change  in 
the  condition  of  the  road  the  moment  we  crossed  the 
frontier.  At  Filipowo,  the  first  Polish  village,  we  had 
to  leave  our  car  temporarily,  and  exchange  it  for  a 
sleigh  drawn  by  two  tired-looking  ponies,  of  whom  I 
Avas  most  suspicious.  Before  we  had  gone  very  far  I 
apologised  to  them.  They  were  simply  wonderful,  and 
though  the  road  was  hardly  more  than  a  cow-track,  and 
in  spite  of  several  upsets,  we  covered  the  twelve  miles  in 
considerably  less  than  two  hours.  To  any  one  who  has 
any  idea  of  Polish  roads  in  March,  this  will  constitute 
a  record.  The  church  at  Suwalki,  the  pagoda-like 
tower  of  which  we  had  noticed  a  long  way  off,  is  a 
magnificent  structure.  It  has  somewhat  the  appear- 
ance of  a  Mohammedan  mosque,  with  its  many  minarets 
and  mosaic  decorations.  The  inside,  too,  is  exquisite, 
with  its  Russian  paintings  and  tapestries.  I  am  happy 
to  be  able  to  state  that  this  particular  church  has  not 
been  damaged  at  all. 

Just  outside  the  churchyard  stood  two  German  field- 


188  BEHIND  THE  GERMAN  VEIL 

bakeries,  each  of  them  —  so  I  was  told  —  with  a  ca- 
pacity of  twenty  thousand  loaves  a  day.  Many  pairs 
of  interested  eyes,  both  German  and  Russian,  were 
keenly  watching  the  operations  of  the  elderly  bakers. 

Here  I  saw  a  different  type  of  prisoner.  They  had 
been  placed  inside  the  church  and  churchyard.  They 
stood,  knelt,  or  squatted  in  little  groups  around  anaemic- 
looking  fires.  Some  of  them  were  trying  to  cook  a  meal 
of  sorts  over  the  listless  flames.  What  I  did  not  like 
about  these  prisoners  was  the  hunted  expression  in 
their  eyes.  There  was  something  uncanny  about  it. 
Was  it  fear  or  merely  uncertainty  of  the  future?  Did 
they  wonder  what  was  going  to  happen  to  them?  Had 
they  perhaps  seen,  or  even  experienced,  some  Hunnish 
treatment?  Perhaps  they  knew  of  some  comrade,  who, 
too  injured  to  walk,  had  been  knifed  by  his  captors, 
There  was  something  wrong  here.  These  were  not  the 
same  type  of  men  I  had  seen  further  back  on  the  road 
to  Lotzen  and  Goldap. 

My  guide  had  a  brother  somewhere  in  the  neighbour- 
hood, and,  after  many  inquiries,  he  learned  his  where- 
abouts, evidently  a  spot  that  could  only  be  reached  on 
foot.  He  asked  whether  I  would  mind  being  left  alone 
for  half  an  hour,  which,  of  course,  I  did  not  in  the 
least.  My  chaperon  evidently  thought  that  I  was 
going  to  remain  in  the  sleigh,  watching  and  waiting 
and  twiddling  my  thumbs!  He  knew  better  when  he 
got  back.  I  saw  plenty  of  men  and  things  that  would 
keep  me  interested  and  occupied,  and  I  think  I  made 
the  best  of  that  half  an  hour  and  more. 

The  large  churchyard  seemed  like  a  huge  gipsy  camp. 
Unaccompanied,  I  wandered  amongst  the  Russians,  and 
though  they  must  naturally  have  taken  me  for  one  of 
the  enemy,  I  met  with  nothing  but  respect  and  felt  per- 
fectly safe.     But  how  I  should  have  liked  to  cheer  them 


5  -2 


■^  *i- 


;j 


EN  ROUTE  189 

up ;  to  explain  to  them  that  I  came  from  "  la  bas," 
across  the  Channel.  But  even  journalists  are  some- 
times discreet. 

How  tired  and  worn  many  of  them  looked,  some  of 
them  seemed  almost  dumb.  In  the  church,  rows  and 
rows  of  them  were  sitting  against  the  walls  or  the  pillars 
or  in  the  pews,  their  great-coats  wrapped  round  their 
shoulders  and,  where  possible,  their  knees  drawn  up  to 
their  chins.  Most  of  the  church  windows  were  of 
stained  glass,  and  every  now  and  then,  when  the  sun 
succeeded  in  piercing  the  grey  leaden  sky,  it  threw  a 
few  dancing  rays  over  that  strange  assembly,  illuminat- 
ing those  tired  and  weary  figures  and  faces  with  a  gold 
and  yellowish  light.     The  effect  was  phantasmagorical. 

In  one  corner  of  the  church  stood  a  number  of  offi- 
cers. I  glanced  round  to  make  sure  that  there  were  no 
Germans  in  sight,  and  then  walked  up  to  them  and 
introduced  myself  in  French.  While,  of  course,  it  was 
impossible  to  disclose  my  real  identity,  I  certainly  made 
mention  of  the  fact  that  I  was  a  neutral  journalist. 
They  shook  hands  very  solemnly,  bowed  stiffly,  but 
seemed  —  quite  naturally  —  little  inclined  to  cultivate 
my  acquaintance.  Only  one  young  man,  a  lieutenant 
of  one  of  the  Caucasian  regiments,  as  shown  by  his 
high  fur  cap,  very  young  and  evidently  very  inexperi- 
enced, was  different.  He  asked  me  several  questions, 
and,  as  my  answers  seemed  to  satisfy  him,  he  took  a 
letter  from  his  pocket  (curious  how  it  could  have  been 
overlooked  by  the  Germans  when  he  was  searched),  and 
pointed  to  a  certain  paragraph.  It  was  written  in 
French.  I  read :  "  I  do  so  much  want  to  be  near  you. 
Can  you  not  ask  K to  give  me  a  post  in  the  ambu- 
lance train?  I  am  willing  to  do  anything.  This  is 
terrible.  I  miss  you  so.  I  must  be  near  you."  The 
letter  was  from  his  wife.     He  told  me  that  they  had 


i90  BEHIND  THE  GERMAN  VEIL 

been  married  about  a  month  before  the  outbreak  of 
war,  and  that  he  had  been  sent  to  the  front  almost 
immediately.  I  soon  saw  what  he  was  driving  at,  but 
I  noticed  that  he  still  hesitated  to  ask  me  outright. 
So  I  met  him  more  than  half  way,  and  asked  him 
whether  he  would  not  like  to  write  a  few  words  saying 
that  he  was  safe,  etc.,  promising  him  that  I  should  do 
my  best  to  get  it  safely  out  of  Germany.  I  know  it 
was  a  somewhat  impulsive  and  more  or  less  foolish 
thing  to  do,  but  then  we  all  have  our  various  shortcom- 
ings, and  impulsiveness  is  frequently  one  of  mine. 
Thanks  to  German  organisation,  I  was  supplied  with 
a  little  pocket-book  carrying  note-paper,  envelopes, 
pencil,  etc.  I  pressed  the  lot  upon  him,  though  he 
protested  that  he  would  only  need  one  sheet.  But  I 
*  think  I  know  a  little  about  those  letters  to  a  loved  one, 
that  frequently  begin  with :  "  Just  a  few  lines,"  and 
run  into  a  dozen  sheets.  The  present  case  was  no 
exception.  When  I  returned  after  about  twenty  min- 
utes he  handed  me  an  envelope  that  literally  bulged  to 
bursting  point.  He  also  entrusted  me  with  his  diary, 
a  small  note-book,  and  begged  me  to  peruse  it  and  make 
use  of  any  parts  that  I  might  deem  of  interest.  On 
the  first  page  of  the  diary  a  small  photograph  was 
pasted;  evidently  it  had  been  cut  out  from  a  large 
portrait.  It  showed  the  gentle,  sweet  face  of  a  young 
woman.     She  was  French,  as  he  confided  to  me. 

The  few  pages  of  the  diary  I  read  were  full  of  long- 
ing, love  and  tenderness.  It  seemed  as  if  that  boy's 
heart  and  soul  had  slipped  through  his  fingers  into  those 
pages.  Longing,  heart-hunger,  love,  deeds  of  bravery, 
patriotism,  every  fine  human  instinct  seemed  repro- 
duced in  those  closely-written  lines.  I  could  not  read 
more  than  a  few  pages;  I  felt  that  it  would  have  been 
sacrilege  to  continue.     I  am  thankful  to  say  that  both 


EN  ROUTE  191 

letter  and  diary  were  safely  smuggled  out  of  Germany. 
I  sent  them  by  registered  post  to  Kieff,  and  I  have  since 
had  the  great  satisfaction  of  hearing  that  they  reached 
their  destination  safely. 

The  trip  to  Augustowo,  where  we  were  to  spend  the 
night,  was  also  full  of  interest.  I  think  we  must  have 
met  at  least  a  thousand  Russians,  but  all  of  them  in 
small  groups  of  from  five  to  twenty,  and  entirely  un- 
escorted by  guards.  The  majority  of  them  were  un- 
armed, but  not  a  few  had  retained  their  rifles,  slung 
across  their  backs.  We  stopped  several  of  those  men, 
and  invariably  they  replied  to  my  companion's  inter- 
rogations that  they  were  on  their  way  to  "  Prussaki, 
Kamerad."  At  night,  at  Augustowo,  the  phenomenon 
of  those  unescorted  prisoners  was  explained  to  me. 
During  the  fighting  in  the  woods  near  Augustowo, 
stretching  from  that  town  to  Sopockinie  in  the  east 
and  Dombrowo  in  the  south,  an  area  of  some  two  hun- 
dred square  miles,  several  Russian  regiments  had  got 
separated  from  the  main  column.  For  many  days  thou- 
sands of  men  were  lost  in  those  woods.  They  tried  to 
escape,  of  course,  but  it  appeared  that,  in  whatever 
direction  they  went,  they  ran  into  German  troops.  In 
this  case  it  really  was  hunger  that  finally  forced  them 
to  go  and  surrender.  I  met  a  certain  Lieutenant  Dilg, 
who  with  eighty  of  his  men  had  been  a  prisoner  of  the 
Russians  for  five  days.  He  said  he  had  no  complaints 
to  make  about  the  treatment  he  received;  thsA  his  cap- 
tors had  shared  whatever  they  had  in  the  way  of  food ; 
but,  alas !  that  was  very  little.  When  they  finally  saw 
that  it  was  no  use  remaining  in  those  woods,  they  sim- 
ply changed  places,  from  captors  became  prisoners, 
and,  side  by  side,  marched  to  the  first  German  post. 

On  the  road  we  continually  overtook  munition  trans- 
"Dorts :  many  of  them  seemed  to  be  in  difficulties.     There 


192  BEHIND  THE  GERMAN  VEIL 

was  hardly  a  quarter-mile  stretch  on  which  we  did  noL 
see  wagons  and  carts  axle-deep  in  the  mud  or  the  ditch. 
It  appeared  that  it  was  impossible  to  find  enough  sleighs 
for  all  their  requirements,  so  a  certain  number  of  carts 
had  to  be  used.  Needless  to  say,  their  usefulness  on 
Polish  roads  was  extremely  problematical. 

The  peculiar  horn  signal:  "  Ta-ri-ta-ta "  (three 
distinct  notes),  which  in  Berlin  is  only  used  for  auto- 
mobiles of  the  Imperial  Household,  but  in  the  war  zones 
has  now  become  a  prerogative  of  the  General  Staffs, 
blown  by  the  man  on  the  box,  always  secured  us  a  quick 
and  unobstructed  passage.  More  than  once,  I  regret 
to  say,  we  ourselves  were  the  cause  of  getting  horses 
and  carts  into  the  ditch. 

Just  before  reaching  Augustowo  I  saw  a  tall  Russian 
lying  in  the  snow.  His  rifle  was  clasped  in  his  arms, 
and  from  his  easy,  natural  attitude  we  thought  that  he 
was  sleeping.  So  he  was,  but  it  was  the  long,  long  sleep 
from  which  we  only  wake  up  after  we  have  reached  the 
land  of  mystery,  the  Great  Unknown. 


CHAPTER  XXV 

IMPRESSIONS   IN   THE   POUSH    FIGHTING   ZONES 

I  CANNOT  take  you  over  the  ground  mile  after  mile, 
and  place  after  place.  Every  hour,  sometimes 
every  minute,  of  that  trip  seemed  to  be  a  kaleidoscope 
of  strange,  weird,  horrible  and  yet  fascinating  impres- 
sions. It  would  take  a  book  to  describe  those  fifteen 
days  alone. 

Therefore  I  must  content  myself  with  trying  to  re- 
cord here  some  of  the  incidents  which  tjo  my  thinking 
stood  out  in  sharpest  relief. 

At  the  Divisional  Headquarters  at  Augustowo  I  was 
turned  over  to  the  tender  care  of  a  Captain  von  Schlegel, 
who,  later  on,  at  dinner,  formally  introduced  me  to  the 
General.  I  am  somewhat  uncertain  about  the  latter's 
name.  I  met  so  many  different  officers  and  heard  so 
many  names  during  my  trip,  that  it  was  well-nigh  im- 
possible, except  in  cases  of  special  interest,  to  remember 
which  was  which.  I  believe  it  was  General  von  Scholtz. 
The  conversation  at  dinner  was  varied  enough.  The 
topics  included  the  cure  of  lice  on  horses,  chess,  and, 
of  course,  the  usual  shop.  One  Captain  of  Uhlans 
swore  that  paraffin  was  the  only  proper  remedy,  while 
one  of  his  colleagues  maintained  that  it  destroyed  the 
hair  and  skin  of  the  horse. 

He  had  a  better  prescription.     One  of  his  sergeants 

collected  all  the  cigar  and  cigarette  ends  he  could  get, 

and  soaked  them  in  warm  water.     This  concoction  did 

the  trick  just  as  well  —  it  killed  the  lice  and  did  not 

barm  the  hair  or  skin. 

103 


194.  BEHIND  THE  GERMAN  VEIL 

Several  of  the  officers  present  had  been  at  the  West- 
ern front,  and  I  carefully  led  the  subject  on  to  the 
*'  contemptible  little  arm3\"  I  must  tell  you  that  I 
never  yet  met  a  German  officer  who  admits  that  that 
expression  was  ever  used  by  the  Emperor.  On  the  con- 
trary, they  all  positively  deny  it.  They  maintained 
that  he  used  the  word  "  Armeechen,"  which,  translated 
literally,  means  "  little  army."  They  said  that  the 
Kaiser,  just  as  every  German  Staff  Officer,  knew  too 
much  about  the  British  physique.  That  England  was 
sometimes  looked  upon  as  a  large  aggregation  of  rifle 
clubs,  and,  anyhow,  of  sportsmen.  But  whenever  they 
say  sometliing  nice  about  the  British,  there  is  always  a 
*'  but  " ;  no  one  believed  in  Kitchener's  army  of  millions. 
What  Hindenburg  said  about  the  difficulties  of  training 
sufficient  officers  and  N.C.O.'s  for  such  an  army  was 
repeated  whenever  the  subject  was  broached. 

The  German  Staff  Officer  thinks  that  Germany  has  a 
monopoly  of  military  organisation.  They  are  quite 
convinced  that  because  it  has  taken  them  something 
like  eighty  years  to  organise  their  army,  other  countries 
will  need  just  as  long,  probably  longer. 

I  wonder  what  they  are  thinking  about  "  Kitchener's 
Army"  now?  They  granted  that  the  British  were 
excellent  fighters.  I  never  met  a  German  officer  who 
spoke  otherwise. 

rt  was  admitted  that,  taken  all  in  all,  the  Russians 
conducted  their  warfare  decently ;  that  after  the  first 
month  of  hostilities  very  few  excesses  had  been  reported. 
There  is  little  hatred  at  the  Eastern  front,  but  in  its 
stead  one  meets  everywhere  that  cocksure  feeling  of 
absolute  superiority.  (Is  this  perhaps  an  explanation 
of  their  bitterness  against  the  British?) 


IN  POLISH  FIGHTING  ZONES  195 

German  officers  have  a  way  of  talking  down  to  you  as 
soon  as  you  touch  on  military  matters,  especially  if 
you  happen  to  come  from  a  non-conscription  country. 
So  at  every  meal  I  was  treated  to  many  dissertations, 
in  which  the  physical  and  moral  qualities  and  advan- 
tages of  the  various  nations  were  compared.  The  usual 
eulogies  were  spread  thick  over  the  German  training, 
which  was  supposed  to  be  on  "  spiritual  "  and  "  moral  " 
lines ! 

But  I  must  admit  they  were  a  courteous  lot.  I  think 
the  General  could  easily  have  been  persuaded  to  stage  a 
little  battle  for  my  benefit  on  the  next  day.  Anyhow, 
I  was  invited  to  ride  forward  into  the  lines,  which  invi- 
tation I  accepted  with  alacrity.  That  visit  nearly  had 
fatal  results. 

For  several  weeks  there  had  been  intermittent  fighting 
in  and  round  the  woods  of  Augustowo,  northwest  of 
Grodno.  On  the  morning  when  I  was  to  be  given  a 
nearer  view  of  the  fighting  lines,  there  were  rumours 
abroad  that  promised  a  fair  harvest  of  excitement.  On 
passing  through  Sopockinie,  a  small  town  some  twenty 
miles  northwest  of  Grodno,  we  received  the  message 
that  a  cavalry  engagement  was  in  progress  in  the  neigh- 
bourhood of  the  village  of  Racicze,  about  six  miles 
further  south.  My  guide,  a  Staff  Captain,  anxious  to 
give  me  an  opportunity  of  seeing  German  cavalry  at 
work,  ordered  the  chauffeur  to  open  the  throttle  and  get 
us  to  Racicze  as  fast  as  he  could. 

We  did  not  have  to  wait  long  for  the  German  cavalry. 
As  we  turned  a  corner  we  were  suddenly  faced,  less 
than  five  hundred  feet  away,  and  on  a  narrow  road,  by 
half  a  hundred  riderless  horses,  galloping  madly  to- 
WAEDS  us. 


196  BEHIND  THE  GERMAN  VEIL 

Our  chauffeur,  with  commendable  presence  of  mind 
for  a  German,  swerved  the  car,  and,  trying  to  emulate 
the  British  "  Schiitzengrabenvernichtigungsautorao- 
bile,"  better  known  as  "  Tanks,"  essayed  to  negotiate 
a  shallow  ditch.  But  it  was  no  go.  Fortunately  we 
had  slowed  down  at  the  corner,  and  that  saved  us.  The 
car  simply  turned  over  on  its  right  side,  and  remained 
in  that  position,  but  luckily  off  the  road.  The  captain 
and  I  were  thrown  out,  but  with  the  exception  of  a 
thorough  snow-mud  bath,  and  a  good  shaking,  we  were 
none  the  worse  for  it.  Not  even  the  chauffeur  received 
a  scratch. 

Simultaneously  with  our  salto  mortale  the  frightened 
horses  thundered  past,  missing  the  wheels  of  the  car 
only  by  inches.  Several  of  them  had  big  gaping  wounds 
from  which  the  blood  was  streaming  freely,  leaving  a 
large  red  trail  in  their  wake.  From  several  the  saddles 
had  slipped  down,  and  were  hanging  underneath  their 
bellies,  the  swinging  stirrups  hitting  them  in  different 
places,  and  driving  them  still  more  frantic. 

We  were  close  to  the  village  of  Wolowiczowce,  where 
we  found  food,  rest,  shelter  and  opportunity  to  dry  our 
clothes. 

Later  in  the  day  I  heard  that  the  cavalry  engagement 
had  been  a  somewhat  one-sided  affair.  A  German 
squadron  engaged  a  small  detachment  of  Russian  in- 
fantry situated  about  a  quarter  of  a  mile  in  front  of 
a  wood.  The  Germans  charged  and  ran  bang  into  three 
hidden  Russian  machine  guns.  Their  losses  were  con- 
siderable. 

What  a  pity  I  missed  that  fight ! 

The  captain  commandeered  another  car,  in  which  we 
returned  to  Sopockinie,  where  Brigade  Headquarters 
were  established. 

At  Kirbaty  I  was  taken  to  the  station,  where  I  had 


IN  POLISH  FIGHTING  ZONES  19T 

an  opportunity  of  inspecting  a  Russian  ambulance  train 
captured  a  day  or  two  before.  It  was  painted  white, 
with,  of  course,  the  conventional  Red  Cross  in  different 
places.  It  belonged,  so  various  inscriptions  told  me,  to 
the  "  Mission  Fran^aise."  Most  of  the  nurses  were 
French,  and  they  looked  it  —  slim  and  neat,  well 
dressed,  and  the  majority  of  them  most  attractive.  Of 
course,  they  hardly  took  any  notice  af  my  companion 
and  myself.  Only  now  and  then  one  would  throw  a 
glance  at  us  that  spoke  volumes.  I  must  say  I  did  not 
enjoy  it,  and  would  have  liked  a  label  on  me:  "Not 
German."  That  train  was  the  most  luxurious  war 
implement  I  have  seen  anywhere,  too  splendid  for  any- 
thing. But  for  the  odour  of  carbolic,  ether,  iodine 
and  similai*  medical  smells,  one  might  have  imagined 
oneself  in  a  private  American  car.  Several  wounded 
Russian  officers  lay  in  their  cots,  most  of  them  smoking. 
I  had  a  few  words  with  one  of  the  Russian  doctors  — 
a  young  man.  He  seemed  entirely  at  a  loss  to  under- 
stand what  had  happened.  "  Where  are  our  armies  ?  " 
he  asked  me  in  French.  "What  has  happened .?  Ah, 
mon  Dieu,  when  is  all  this  going  to  end?  " 

It  seems  that  this  ambulance  train  was  ten  minutes 
late  in  starting.  Everything  had  been  in  readiness  to 
return  to  Grodno,  when  at  tlife  last  second  a  German 
cavalry  patrol  suddenly  appeared,  shot  the  engine 
driver,  and  "  captured  "  the  train. 

Several  of  the  nurses  walked  up  and  down  the  plat- 
form, quite  unconcerned,  and  never  paying  the  slightest 
attention  to  the  large  number  of  stupidly  staring  Ger- 
mans. Dressed  in  thick  fur  coats  that  reached  almost 
to  the  ankles,  they  strolled  about  and  conversed  in 
French.  I  think  just  then  I  was  getting  a  little  bit 
sick  of  my  adventures  with  the  Germans.  It  was  all 
very  well  as  long  as  I  did  not  see  or  hear  anything  but 


198  BEHIND  THE  GERMAN  VEIL 

German  and  Germans ;  but  the  moment  I  heard  French 
once  more,  the  moment  when  one  meets,  or  at  least 
sees,  other  nationalities  —  well,  I  do  not  know  exactly 
how  to  define  my  feelings ;  it  seemed  that  associating 
with  the  Huns  put  one  beyond  the  pale,  and  made  one 
feel  that  one  was  on  the  outside,  looking  in.  I  did  want 
to  talk  to  those  pretty  French  nurses,  not  only  to  hear 
their  experiences,  but  in  tlie  spirit  of  meeting  somebody 
from  home  in  a  far,  far  country.  But  it  could  not  be 
done,  or  at  least  I  did  not  try  it.  I  had  no  intention  of 
risking  being  ignominiously  snubbed,  and  of  being 
looked  upon  as  a  German  secret  agent. 

In  the  operating  car  several  doctors  were  engaged  in 
amputating  the  leg  of  a  giant  Russian.  With  a  heavy 
heart  I  turned  my  back  on  the  station  and  walked  into 
the  town. 

It  already  bore  signs  of  German  enterprise,  not  only 
because  of  the  many  German  uniforms,  but  also  owing 
to  the  different  announcements  over  the  shops.  Several 
Berlin  stores  must  have  travelling  shops  with  every 
army,  because  hardly  has  a  new  town  been  captured, 
than  the  inevitable  "  Deutsches  Kaufhaus  "  ("  German 
shop")  is  opened.  The  military  authorities  regulate 
prices.  Last  year  butter  had  to  be  sold  for  1.90  mark 
—  that  is,  just  under  fifty  cents  the  pound;  sugar  at 
35  pfennig  a  pound  (about  8  cents)  ;  matches  about  2 
cents  a  box,  etc. 

Everything  possible  is  done  to  ward  off  epidemics. 
In  every  town  near  the  front  one  finds  steam  disinfect- 
ing stations.  While  the  men  are  having  a  hot  bath 
their  clothes  are  placed  in  a  large  boiler  and  sterilised. 

German  dentists,  too,  are  everywhere,  and  I  have 
seen  many  an  operation  performed  by  the  light  of  a 
kerosene  lamp  held  up  by  the  dentist's  orderly. 


IN  POLISH  FIGHTING  ZONES  199 

The  presents  that  are  sent  from  Germany  to  the 
front  are  methodically  distributed.  Everybody  who 
receives  any  article  of  clothing,  whether  it  be  a  pair  of 
socks,  or  a  great-coat,  must  return  in  exchange  a  simi- 
lar garment.  It  does  not  matter  in  how  bad  a  con- 
dition it  is,  nor  whether  it  is  soiled  or  clean.  This  pre- 
vents waste.  Formerly  the  men  simply  threw  away 
their  soiled  linen  or  other  clothing,  and  asked  for  new 
things.  That  has  been  stopped  now.  The  old  things 
are  returned  to  Germany,  thoroughly  cleaned,  and  then 
repaired  by  voluntary  workers. 

German  Staff  Officers  tried  to  convince  me  —  but  did 
not  succeed  —  that  every  man  at  the  Eastern  front 
received  half  a  pound  of  meat  and  half  a  pound  of 
bread  per  diem.  I  have  never  been  able  to  find  either  a 
private  or  a  non-comm.  to  confirm  this.  Usually  the}'' 
smiled  and  looked  wise.  Some  of  them  went  as  far  as 
to  say  that  that  is  what  they  were  "  supposed  "  to  get 
if  the  commissariat  department  was  in  perfect  working 
order,  which,  however,  in  view  of  the  almost  insurmount- 
able difficulties,  the  long  lines  of  communication,  the 
condition  of  the  Polish  roads,  etc.,  etc.,  was  rarely  the 
case. 

A  most  amusing  incident  interrupted  our  drive 
through  Johannisburg  on  the  Prussian  Polish  border. 
In  front  of  a  house  stood  a  Landsturm  man,  a  private 
of,  I  suppose,  about  forty-five  years  of  age,  and  a  young 
beardless  lieutenant.  The  two  seemed  to  be  in  hot 
argument,  and  suddenly  the  Landsturm  man  shook  liis 
fist  in  the  officer's  face. 

My  companion  the  captain  stopped  the  car,  called 
the  private  over  to  him  and  bawled :  "  My  God,  man, 
have  you  lost  your  senses  —  threatening  a  superior 
officer.'^     Do  you  know  that  you  can  be  shot  for  that.''  "" 


200  BEHIND  THE  GERMAN  VEIL 

And  the  Landsturm  man,  not  without  jumping  to  atten- 
tion, replied: 

"  At  your  orders,  sir.  He  may  be  my  superior  offi- 
cer, but  he  is  also  my  son !  "  "  Flabbergasted  "  is  the 
only  term  that  describes  my  escort's  ex})ression. 

The  car  continued,  and  he  was  silent  for  quite  some 
time. 

Near  Klonowice,  a  little  bit  of  a  village  about  fifteen 
miles  north  of  Kutno,  I  visited  a  Russian  convent. 
The  sisters  had  remained  and  acted  the  Good  Samari- 
tans. Every  available  space  was  taken  up  by  cots 
and  stretchers,  and  still  the  ambulance  sleighs  drove 
up  with  their  loads  and  filled  the  courtyard. 

It  was  here  that  I  witnessed  Avhat  to  me  will  always 
remain  the  most  ghastly  sight  of  the  war.  If  I  had 
not  known  and  understood  it  before,  it  would  have 
revealed  to  me  the  German  character  in  all  its  naked 
hideousness. 

Standing  in  front  of  the  little  convent  chapel  I  over- 
looked the  surrounding  country.  At  the  foot  of  the 
hill  a  procession  of  stretcher-bearers  slowly  wound  its 
way  towards  an  emergency  hospital.  All  of  a  sudden  I 
heard  the  whining  of  a  shell,  and  then  saw  it  explode 
some  five  or  six  hundred  feet  away.  As  a  second  shell 
whistled  overhead,  the  line  of  stretcher-bearers  stopped. 
As  if  on  commando,  or  struck  by  lightning,  every  one 
of  those  forty-two  cowards  dropped  their  sad  loads 
like  so  many  logs,  and  threw  themselves  flat  on  the 
ground.  Some  of  the  stretchers  landed  squarely,  but 
the  majority  of  the  twenty-one  —  I  can  assure  you  I 
counted  them  — turned  over  and  threw  their  occupants 
in  the  mud  and  snow.  Though  I  was  several  hundred 
feet  distant  I  could  hear  their  shrieks  and  moans.  It 
was  ghastly,  frightful.     Though  I  had  been  trained  in 


IN  POLISH  FIGHTING  ZONES  201 

a  pretty  hard  school  —  Belgium  —  this  left  me  dumb- 
founded. I  have  never  been  so  horrified  in  all  my  life. 
When  the  shell  had  exploded  (which,  by  the  way,  never 
got  within  five  hundred  feet  of  any  of  them),  the  cow- 
ards scrambled  to  their  feet,  and  one  by  one  replaced 
their  moaning  comrades  on  the  stretchers. 

And  although  several  doctors  and  officers  had  wit- 
nessed the  incident,  there  was  not  one  amongst  them 
that  went  and  cursed  those  dastardly  brutes. 

I  think  I  knew  then  what  men  mean  by  "  seeing  red." 
I  believe  that  I  could  have  easily,  with  my  bare  fingers, 
choked  the  life  out  of  those  damnable  cowards.  It  was 
the  most  frightful  exhibition  I  had  ever  witnessed,  and 
whenever  people  ask  me  nowadays  what  to  my  mind 
was  the  most  horrible  war  scene  I  have  been  present  at, 
I  never  hesitate  to  relate  the  above  incident. 

I  turned  my  back  on  these  horrors  and  entered  the 
little  chapel.  Two  nuns  knelt  in  front  of  the  altar,  and 
in  sweet,  falsetto  voices  were  saying  their  prayers.  It 
was  an  oasis  of  peace  amidst  these  vivid  scenes  of  horror 
and  frightfulness. 

It  struck  me  one  day  that  I  had  seen  very  few  wounded 
amongst  them.  Oh!  I  do  not  mean  slightly  wounded, 
in  the  head,  arm,  leg,  or  hand  —  what  are  called  "  walk- 
ing cases."  I  saw  thousands  of  those  —  I  mean  seri- 
ously wounded.  I  was  puzzled  about  this,  when  one 
day,  at  Mlawa,  I  discovered,  quite  by  accident,  the  par- 
tial explanation.  I  was  talking  to  a  sergeant  who  had 
just  come  in  with  a  batch  of  Russian  prisoners.  He 
expressed  his  disgust  at  those  sort  of  jobs.  He  had 
had  to  march  for  several  days  across  country,  sleeping 
anywhere  and  feeding  ditto.  He  preferred  to  be  in  the 
first-line  trenches.     I  shall  now  give  his  words,  and  I 


202  BEHIND  THE  GERMAN  VEIL 

am  recording  them  almost  verbatim,  as  I  wrote  them 
down  shortly  afterwards: 

"  Then  we  had  several  serious  cases  that  were  beyond 
hope,  so  we  had  to  do  away  with  them.  It  is  not  very 
pleasant  work.  You  cannot  shoot  them  because  that 
would  be  too  noisy,  and  would  attract  the  attention 
of  the  others."  When  I  asked  him  how  they  did  it,  he 
replied:  "  Oh,  we  just  take  a  long  knife  and  cut  their 
throats.  In  many  of  these  parts  we  are  thirty  miles 
from  a  railroad.  Our  ambulance  sleighs  and  carts  are 
taxed  to  the  utmost  for  the  transport  of  our  own 
wounded,  which,  of  course,  come  first.  So  what  is  one 
to  do?  Those  that  cannot  walk  —  well,  we  think  it  is 
better  for  them  to  be  put  out  of  their  misery  than  to 
be  left  dying  at  the  roadside." 

Here  was  another  pretty  story.  I  turned  away.  I 
had  to.  I  felt  that  some  day  I  should  commit  man- 
slaughter if  I  stayed  much  longer  in  these  parts. 

A  few  miles  from  Crajewo,  a  small  Polish  town,  we 
stopped  at  a  little  chateau.  My  companion,  a  German 
lieutenant,  and  I  strolled  up  to  have  a  look  at  the  place. 
The  front  door  was  wide  open.  A  piece  of  paper, 
pinned  on  the  door  of  the  drawing-room,  had  written 
on  it:  "  Bitte  beerdigen.  Dr.  .  .  ."  ("Please  bury 
them").  Inside  we  found  eight  Russians.  Seven  of 
them  were  dead,  but  the  eighth  still  showed  signs  of 
life.  What  to  do?  We  were  twelve  miles  from  Cra- 
jewo. Our  sleigh  only  had  four  places,  and  all  of  them 
were  occupied,  and  I  knew  that  it  would  be  useless  to 
ask  that  the  extra  driver,  whom  we  did  not  need  at  all, 
should  be  left  behind. 

The  wretched  man  was  shot  through  the  neck.  It 
must  have  missed  his  windpipe  by  a  fraction  of  an  inch. 
The  best  we  could  do  for  the  present  was  to  take  a  large 


IN  POLISH  FIGHTING  ZONES  203 

sheet,  fasten  it  to  the  balcony  flagpole,  and  hang  it 
out  of  the  first-floor  window.  I  insisted  that  we  should 
return  to  Crajewo.  A  medical  officer  there  promised 
me  *'  Auf  Ehrenwort  "  to  send  out  and  fetch  the  man. 
Did  he  keep  his  word.''     Well  ....'' 

At  Prasnysz,  where  I  spent  the  night,  a  new  draft 
had  arrived  a  day  or  two  before.  It  was  to  go  into  the 
trenches  the  next  evening  at  sunset.  I  was  invited  to 
dinner  at  the  mess  that  night.  General  von  Fran9ois, 
commanding  the  8th  Army  Corps,  who  had  come  over 
specially  for  the  occasion  to  welcome  the  young  officers, 
and  at  the  same  time  give  them  their  send-off",  made 
one  of  the  most  remarkable  speeches,  even  for  Germany, 
that  I  have  ever  listened  to. 

He  said: 

"  Meine  Herren "  ("Gentlemen"),  "you  have  ar- 
rived at  the  last  station  of  civilisation.  To-morrow 
you  will  proceed  towards  the  battlefields  of  Poland,  and 
there  a  new  set  of  ethics  will  begin  for  you.  I  am  not 
going  to  ask  the  Lord  to  Bless  you.  He  veils  His  face 
behind  His  wide  sleeve,  and  marvels  at  the  petty,  un- 
worthy quarrels  of  us  human  pigmies  in  the  big  scheme 
of  things.  Daily  and  nightly  thousands  and  thousands, 
both  friends  and  foe,  are  asking  Him  to  send  them  vic- 
tory. To  whom  shall  He  grant  it.^*  Every  one  thinks 
his  cause  is  a  just  one.  What  I  wish  you  all  to-night 
is  iron  and  steel  in  your  veins  and  marrow.  May  you 
all  return  safely  to  your  wives,  children,  sweethearts ; 
to  all  those  who  are  dear  to  you.  Should  this  not  be, 
then  remember  that  you  will  have  died  the  most  enviable 
death  of  all  —  the  death  for  the  Fatherland.  Your 
Kaiser  and  King  is  with  you,  leads  you  [sic],  and  when 
the  hard-fought  victory,  and  an  honourable  peace  have 
been  won,  then  you  will  gather  round  him,  inspired, 
moved,  proud,  and  kiss  his  dear,  brave  hands.     The 


204  BEHIND  THE  GERMAN  VEIL 

Fatherland   depends    on    you.     '  Hoch    der    Kaiser ! '  " 
Thundering  applause  followed  his  speech ;  then  they 
sang  a  song  of  many  verses,  each  of  them  with  the 
refrain : 

"  Kein  schbnrer  Tod  ist  in  der  Welt, 
Als  wer  vorm  Feind  erschlagen." 

("  No   more  beautiful  death   exists   in  all  the   world, 
Than  his  who  is  killed  before  the  enemy.") 

What  is  one  to  do  with  such  a  nation? 

Curious,  this  difference  in  the  songs  of  the  nations. 
The  British  go  into  battle  singing  a  music-hall  ditty; 
the  Germans  have  a  repertoire  consisting  almost  exclu- 
sively of  sentimental,  home-  and  love-sick  ballads. 

A  Colonel  of  the  Prussian  Guards,  von  Arnim,  showed 
me  his  sword,  presented  to  him  by  a  number  of  civil 
and  military  admirers.  It  seemed  a  magnificent  piece 
of  work.  What  interested  me  most,  though,  was  the 
inscription  on  the  blade.     Translated,  it  read: 

"  Do  not  bare  me  without  good  reason.  But  when 
once  you  have  drawn  me  from  my  scabbard,  do  not 
replace  me  till  I  have  tasted  blood." 

The  strictest  precautions  against  fire  are  taken  in  all 
occupied  territory.  The  Polish  peple  have  the  careless 
habit  when  going  to  bed  of  leaving  all  sorts  of  things 
to  dry  on  the  top  of  their  stoves.  Of  course,  this  fre- 
quently causes  fire  accidents.  The  Germans  soon  tried 
to  remedy  this.  (No  burning  houses,  except  those 
ignited  by  themselves,  are  tolerated  in  enemy  territory.) 
So  it  was  at  once  "  Verboten  "  to  have  anything  at 
all  on  top  of  a  stove,  except  such  paraphernalia  as  was 
necessary  for  the  preparation  of  food,  cooking  and 
washing.     Amongst   many    offences    which    are    called 


IN  POLISH  FIGHTING  ZONES  205 

"  gross  neglect  "  is  leaving  matches  in  waistcoat  pockets 
on  going  to  bed.  Frequent  inspections  —  at  all  hours 
of  the  day  and  night  —  are  made,  and  woe  to  the  house- 
owner  if  contraventions  of  these  orders  are  found. 

At  Allenstein  large  posters  announced  the  appear- 
ance at  the  local  cinema  theatre  of  a  film,  "  The  Hound 
of  the  Baskervilles,"  Sir  Arthur  Conan  Doyle's  story. 
Evidently  the  tabooing  of  everything  English  does  not 
include  moving  pictures. 

I  spent  half  a  day  at  Thorn,  one  of  Germany's 
strongest  Eastern  fortresses  — "  The  Queen  of  the 
Vistula,"  as  it  is  proudly  described.  It  is  surrounded 
by  thirteen  forts,  built  in  1878,  but  modernised  during 
the  last  decade.  While  there  I  had  the  good  luck  to 
see  one  of  the  famous  42  cm.  howitzers.  It  was  en 
route  for  the  Eastern  front,  to  pound  at  the  fortresses 
of  the  Polish  Quadrilateral.  This  gun  has  various 
nicknames ;  the  most  popular  are  "  Fat  Bertha,"  "  Busy 
Bertha "  and  "  Brummer "  {i.e.,  something  that  will 
make  things  "hum"). 

Let  me  give  here  a  few  statistics  of  this  howitzer. 
The  gun  is  fired  electrically,  and  on  account  of  the 
fearful  concussion,  which  no  ear  can  stand,  from  a 
distance  of  about  500-600  feet.  The  maximum  dis- 
tance it  is  supposed  to  be  able  to  throw  its  projectile  is 
44  km.,  about  ^IVo  miles.  They  can  use  projectiles  of 
different  weight.  The  heaviest  weigh  over  ll/o  tons, 
and  require  a  powder  charge  of  1,000  lbs.  The  cost 
of  each  shot  is  supposed  to  be  48,000  marks  ($12,000). 
The  very  prevalent  idea  that  these  guns  are  only  able 
to  fire  a  limited  number  of  rounds,  say,  150,  is,  accord- 
ing to  my  informants,  totally  wrong.  They  claim  at 
least  five  times  that  figure. 

This  bi^  iiun  is  often  confused  with  the  80.5  cm. 


206  BEHIND  THE  GERMAN  VEIL 

(12-inch)  Austrian  howitzer,  built  at  the  Skoda  works. 
The  42  is  exclusively  a  Krupp  invention,  and  entirely 
Krupp  built.  Krupp's  manager  in  Berlin,  Herr  Crass, 
told  me  that  they  had  been  experimenting  with  this  gun 
for  the  last  ten  years.  Only  the  oldest  and  most  trusted 
Krupp  workmen  were  employed  in  the  building,  and  no 
foreigner,  no  matter  what  his  station,  has  ever  been 
inside  that  part  of  the  works.  As  far  as  I  am  able 
to  judge,  I  should  think  that  eight  is  about  the  maxi- 
mum number  of  42  cm.  guns  in  existence. 

It  was  whispered  that  if  by  chance  the  Allies  should 
eventually  succeed  in  getting  near  the  Rhine,  they 
would  meet  with  some  further  big  gun  surprises.  Some 
of  the  Rhine  forts  are  supposed  to  be  armed  with  19- 
inch  guns.  I  give  this  information  for  what  it  is  worth. 
I  have  been  unable  to  verify  it. 

At  Thorn  I  also  saw  some  interesting  new  quick- 
firers.  Though  using  an  inch  and  a  half  calibre  bullet, 
they  were  able  to  fire  30  rounds  a  minute,  with  a  maxi- 
mum range  of  8,000  feet. 

I  discussed  with  many  officers  the  German  system  of 
mass  attacks,  and  suggested  that  their  losses  must  have 
been  staggering.  Of  course  they  denied  this,  but  their 
explanation  of  why  they  attack  in  mass  formation  bears 
out  a  certain  analysis  of  the  German  character. 

"  It  is  a  matter  of  psychology,"  so  they  tell  you. 
"  Moral  influence  and  moral  effect  go  a  long  way  in 
wartime.  A  man  will  fight  better,  with  greater  aban- 
don, with  less  thought  of  and  for  himself,  when  he  is 
in  closest  contact  with  his  comrades.  He  feels  their 
moral  and  physical  support,  shoulder  to  shoulder,  in 
front  and  behind,  and  this  makes  him  a  more  effective 
fighter  than  when  he  is,  relatively  speaking  of  course, 
an  isolated  unit  —  i.e.,  with  six  or  eight  paces  between 
himself  and  his  neighbours.     '  Elbow  room  '  is  a  disad- 


IN  POLISH  FIGHTING  ZONES  207 

vantage  when  a  strong  enemy  position  has  to  be 
stormed.  Present-day  warfare,  in  which  machine-guns 
play  such  a  prominent  part,  demands  greater  physical 
and  moral  courage  than  was  required  in  former  wars. 
First,  because  people  fought  more  in  the  open ;  second, 
it  was  always  a  matter  of  one  man  one  rifle.  Nowadays 
it  is  frequently  a  case  of  one  man  a  hundred  rifles,  if 
you  consider  the  capacity  of  the  modern  machine-gun. 
Then,  the  one  rifle  in  former  wars  was  more  often  than 
not  badly  served ;  furthermore,  it  has  been  conclusively 
proved  that  eighty  per  cent,  of  ordinary  rifle  fire,  com- 
ing from  a  trench  that  is  being  attacked,  is  erratic, 
nervous  and  frequently  too  high.  It  has  been  com- 
puted by  patient  statisticians  that  in  former  wars  it 
took  about  twelve  thousand  bullets  for  each  casualty 
inflicted.  If  that  figure  is  anywhere  near  correct  the 
present  machine-gun  should  lower  it  considerably." 

I  believe  that  the  Germans  think  more  of  their  ma- 
chine-guns than  they  do  of  their  42  cm.  guns.  They 
seem  to  think  that  in  these  days  an  ofPensive  can  only 
be  carried  to  a  successful  conclusion  in  mass  formation. 

A  distinguished  American,  who,  however,  wishes  to 
remain  anonymous,  wrote,^  referring  to  the  German 
mass   attacks: 

"  Of  one  thing  I  am  convinced,  that  hut  for  the  Eng- 
lish, the  Germans  would  have  proved  their  theory  right." 

iSee  "Can  Germany  Win?"  (Pearson). 


CHAPTER  XXVI 

WHEN    I    PRAYED    WITH    THE    KAISER 

ON  our  arrval  at  Lodz  one  Saturday  evening  we 
found  the  place  in  a  great  state  of  excitement. 
What  was  up?  There  are  usually  three  likely  answers 
to  such  a  question,  in  the  German  war  zones :  "  We 
shall  attack  at  dawn " ;  "  The  enemy  has  broken 
through,"  or  "  The  Emperor  is  coming."  This  time 
it  was  the  Kaiser.  He  was  expected  the  next  morning 
on  a  short  visit  to  the  9th  Army  Corps,  under  Gen- 
eral Mackensen.  He  would  attend  Divine  Service  at 
Kumpina. 

My  cicerone,  a  Staff  Captain,  soon  obtained  the 
necessary  permits  for  "  the  distinguished  neutral  jour- 
nalist and  personal  acquaintance  of  Hindenburg." 
Bright  and  early  the  next  morning,  our  car  took  up  a 
"  strategic  "  position  near  the  Warsaw  Station. 

I  was  offered  the  freedom  of  the  special  reception 
platform,  but  I  had  some  experience  of  these  royal 
welcomes,  and  was  taking  no  chances  this  time.  At 
one  of  these  affairs,  just  because  I  was  too  inquisitive 
and  wanted  to  have  a  good  look  at  the  Kaiser  at  close 
quarters,  I  was  kept  separated  from  my  car  until  he 
had  had  half  an  hour's  start.  So,  in  view  of  the  fact 
that  we  had  to  travel  about  forty-five  miles  to  get  to 
"  Chapel,"  I  stuck  to  our  motor. 

The  imperial  train  arrived  punctually  to  the  minute. 
Von  Mackensen  and  his  Staff  were,  of  course,  there  to 
welcome  their  Chief.  Twenty-seven  motor-cars  —  I 
counted  them  —  including  my  own,  were  drawn  up  out- 

208 


WHEN  I  PRAYED  WITH  THE  KAISER      209 

side  the  station.  Ours  was  very,  very  close  to  the 
exit  —  in  fact,  so  near  that  the  chauffeur  had  to  back, 
to  make  room  for  the  Kaiser's  bright  yellow  vehicle. 
Everything  went  like  clockwork.  To  the  sound  of 
hurrahs  the  Kaiser  and  Mackensen  took  their  seats  in 
the  automobile.  It  was  the  seventh  in  the  line.  If  that 
fool  chauffeur  of  ours  had  been  a  bit  more  enterprising, 
and  less  awed  by  the  sight  of  his  Lord  and  Master,  we 
might  have  got  immediately  behind  the  Kaiser's  car. 
Think  of  it !  What  fun !  An  English  correspondent 
for  two  hours  next  to  the  Kaiser.  But  the  German 
chauffeur  was  too  slow,  and  missed  his  opportunity. 
He  lacked  the  journalistic  "touch" — some  call  it 
"  cheek" —  and  so  we  had  to  be  satisfied  with  second 
place  —  i.e.,  number  nine  in  the  procession. 

The  route  from  the  station  through  the  streets  until 
it  reached  the  road  to  Zgierz  on  the  outskirts  of  the 
town,  was  lined  with  bearded  Landsturm  sentries.  The 
civil  population  was  kept  indoors,  except  those  among 
them  that  had  special  permits.  Many  anxious  faces 
peeped  stealthily  from  behind  curtains  as  we  passed. 
German  flags  were  displayed  in  great  profusion.  I 
wondered  where  they  all  came  from.  Surely  not  from 
Lodz.  Quite  by  accident  I  subsequently  found  out. 
In  such  a  well-regulated  organisation  as  the  German 
Empire,  the  Kaiser,  like  any  other  great  actor  or  per- 
former. Las  his  advance  agents.  They  are  somewhat 
on  the  lines  of  the  advance  pressmen  of  circuses  and 
big  shows,  only  in  this  case,  instead  of  posters  and  bills, 
they  carry  wagon-loads  of  flags. 

I  had  by  now  grown  accustomed  to  the  landscape 
that  greeted  us  as  we  reached  the  open  country.  As 
usual,  it  was  barren,  bleak  and  white.  It  was  slightly 
rolling  in  contour.  Here  and  there  on  the  horizon 
black  patches  of  forest  vividly  contrasted  with  the  large 


210  BEHIND  THE  GERMAN  VEIL 

expanse  of  snow.  The  villages  seemed  to  consist  of 
snow  houses,  church  spires  —  or  what  was  left  of  them 
—  tall  factory  chimney's,  telegraph  poles  and  modest 
wayside  shrines  —  all  were  clad  in  a  thick  coat  of 
frozen  snow  and  ice.  And  all  round  us  were  the  inevi- 
table signs  of  old  battlefields,  and  of  an  army  in  retreat. 
Shattered  transport  wagons,  broken  guns  of  all  cali- 
bres, field  kitchens,  ammunition  carts,  sleighs,  broken 
rifles,  and  leather  accoutrements  of  all  sorts,  and,  alas ! 
the  familiar  simple  wooden  crosses  by  their  hundreds 
and  their  thousands.  Here  and  there  one  could  still 
distinguish  the  inscriptions,  but  in  most  cases  the 
weather  had  obliterated  every  mark  of  identit3\  I  had 
seen  many  similar  sights  before,  in  Belgium,  in  France, 
and,  latterly,  on  the  Eastern  front ;  but  somehow  on 
that  still  Sunday  morning,  driving  behind  and  in  such 
close  proximity  to  the  man  who,  in  the  eyes  of  compe- 
tent judges,  is  held  largely  responsible  for  this  blood- 
shed and  destruction,  it  seemed  to  affect  me  more 
strongl}'  than  ever  before. 

I  wondered  what  the  man  in  front  was  thinking. 
What  would  I  not  have  given  to  be  able  to  read  his 
thoughts  at  seeing  these  sad  sights.  But  though  I 
should  have  liked  to  have  known  them,  I  did  not  envy 
him  his  meditations. 

Here  and  there  small  groups  of  Polish  peasants, 
dressed  in  their  picturesque  multi-coloured  garb,  passed 
us  on  their  way  to  church.  Whether  by  accident, 
custom,  or  design,  I  cannot  say,  but  the  moment  our 
cars  were  sighted  the  women  in  their  bunchy  petticoats 
quickly  threw  their  top  skirts  over  their  heads,  and 
either  passed  on,  or  stood  along  the  roadside,  looking 
neither  to  the  right  nor  to  the  left,  and  taking  not  the 
slightest  notice  of  the  long  procession.     The  men,  very 


WHEN  I  PRAYED  WITH  THE  KAISER      211 

much  in  the  mmority,  were  oldish,  and  were  dressed  in 
skin  coats  bordered  with  brown  or  blue  cloth.  Their 
headgear  consisted  of  the  tall,  fur,  peakless  caps  of  the 
country,  or  else  the  funny  little  narrow-brimmed,  round 
Lodz  hats. 

Near  the  small  town  of  Glowno  we  drove  through 
extensive  woods,  all  pine  trees.  The  wind  howled 
through  their  slender  branches.  The  interior  looked 
black  and  mysterious,  in  sharp  contrast  to  the  crown 
of  snow  with  which  the  trees  were  covered.  The  sin- 
ister depths  of  the  forest  seemed  to  tell,  and  yet  try  to 
hide,  the  terrible  story  of  death  and  murder  enacted  in 
its  presence.  Small  detachments  of  Russian  pi'isoners, 
superintended  by  middle-aged  German  soldiers,  were 
bur3dng  the  dead,  ten  of  them  to  a  grave.  The  men 
stood  in  the  snow  almost  knee-deep.  When  our  cars 
hove  in  sight  the  Germans,  regardless  of  their  charges, 
ran  as  fast  as  the  deep  snow  would  permit  them,  towards 
the  road  and  cheered  themselves  hoarse  till  the  last 
car  had  passed.  They  they  returned  to  their  terrible 
labours.  That  wood  was  like  one  of  those  ghastly,  yet 
realistic  paintings  one  occasionally  comes  across,  only 
a  million  times  enlarged.  It  sometimes  haunts  me  in 
my  sleep. 

From  Lodz  to  Lowicz  is,  roughly  speaking,  about 
forty-five  miles,  and  this  distance  was  covered  in  just 
under  three  hours,  which,  considering  the  snowbound 
roads  and  the  deep  mud  underneath,  was  pretty  good 
going.  Lowicz  lies  on  the  left  bank  of  the  Bsura,  and 
was  at  the  time  only  a  few  miles  behind  the  actual  firing 
line.  Near  enough  to  hear  distinctly  the  sound  of  the 
guns.  It  was  crammed  with  soldiers  of  all  branches  of 
the  service.  The  market-place,  which,  by  the  way,  is 
already  called  "  Kaiser  Wilhelms  Platz,"  was  crowded 
with  munition  wagons,   transports  of  every  kind   and 

■  I 


212  BEHIND  THE  GERMAN  VEIL 

description,  sleighs,  motor-cars,  ambulance  cars  and 
several  pieces  of  artillery,  which,  as  I  learned  later,  were 
captured  from  the  Russians  the  day  before  on  the 
Rawka.  At  the  "  Hindenburg  Platz,"  on  the  outskirts 
of  the  city,  the  Commander  of  the  town  received  the 
Emperor ;  but,  as  far  as  I  could  see,  his  speech  was  cut 
short  by  the  Kaiser,  who  was  anxious  to  get  on.  Slowly 
our  long  train  of  cars  wound  its  way  through  the  sen- 
try-lined streets.  Of  course,  there  was  the  usual  dis- 
play of  German  flags.  We  did  not  tarry  long  in 
Lowicz,  but  continued  for  another  eight  miles  to  di- 
visional headquarters  at  Kompina,  a  small  village  in  the 
marshes  along  the  Bsura.  From  now  on  the  country 
was  simply  overrun  with  troops,  wherever  the  eye  trav- 
elled one  noticed  them.  There  were  also  a  large  num- 
ber of  trenches  and  dug-outs  in  this  part  of  the  country. 
Then  suddenly  a  transformation  scene  was  enacted. 
We  passed  through  two  high  iron  gates,  and  found  our- 
selves in  a  large  and  magnificent  park.  Tall  poplars, 
or  were  they  elms,  bordered  the  road.  At  the  end  of  a 
splendid  avenue,  a  mile  long,  we  reached  a  large  open 
space  —  our  destination.  The  centre  was  occupied  by 
a  spick  and  span  automobile  altar.  It  struck  a  dis- 
cordant note  there  in  God's  great  outdoor  church.  It 
was,  if  anything,  too  luxurious.  The  gold  and  red 
tinsel,  the  carved  woodwork,  suggested  the  word 
"  gaudy."  It  looked  incongruous  and  sadly  out  of 
place. 

The  castle,  a  massive  medieval  structure,  was  sur- 
rounded by  what  had  once  been  lawns  with  flower-beds 
that  might  have  vied  with  those  of  an  English  estate. 
Now  they  were  little  more  than  pools  of  muddy  snow 
and  drab  water. 

Hardly  a  stone's-throw  from  the  altar  stood  a  power- 
ful motor-lorry,  surmounted  by  a  long-barrelled  anti- 


A  Snapshot  of  the  Kaiskr  Taken  by  Phixc  e  Oscar 
It  was  sent  to  a  photoifrapher  in  a  smnll  town  in  hare  the  film 
developed.  The  man  printed  a  few  copies  for  hh  own  use.  and  .leni 
one  to  an  agency  in  lierlin.  The  Berlin  firm  sold  the  photonraph, 
but  the  moment'  it  appeared  the  (jreater  part  of  the  ma<jaztne  ire 
vhirh  it    was  pnhlished   was  confiscated 


WHEN  I  PRAYED  WITH  THE  KAISER     213 

aircraft  gun.  A  bit  further  on  a  wireless  telegraphy 
apparatus  was  fixed,  and  the  operator  in  charge  was  in 
communication  with  one  of  the  aviators  flying  overhead. 
The  castle  square  offered  a  kaleidoscopic  effect. 
Low  Polish  sleighs,  harnessed  with  three  or  more  Si- 
berian ponies ;  ambulance  cars  and  wagons ;  long  four- 
wheeled  peasant  carts,  an  ammunition  wagon  or  two, 
three  field-kitchens,  a  field-bakery  (on  wheels),  numer- 
ous saddle  horses  and  luxurious  limousines,  were  all 
crowded  pell-mell  in  a  sea  of  mud  and  dirty  snow. 

Several  regiments,  in  full  field  kit,  stood  drawn  up  in 
parade  formation  at  different  angles  to  the  altar. 

The  Kaiser  had  alighted  at  the  castle  for  a  few  mo- 
ments (during  which  time  I  sought  out  an  advantageous 
position  close  to  the  altar).  He  soon  reappeared,  arm- 
in-arm  with  his  son  Prince  Joachim,  and  accompanied 
by  General  Mackensen.  Short  crisp  commandos  of 
"  Achtung,"  "  Stillgestanden,"  rang  out,  and  the  grey 
mass  of  officers  passed  slowly  along  the  lines. 

If  appearances  count  for  anything,  the  War  Lord  is 
a  very  tired  and  worried  man.  His  hair  and  moustache 
have  grown  quite  grey.  His  eyes  were  sunk  and  hol- 
low, and  bore  the  unmistakable  trace  of  wakeful  nights. 
Deep  lines  were  drawn  about  the  corners  of  his  mouth 
and  nose.  The  German  field  grey  does  not  suit  him  at 
all.  The  cloud  of  grey  that  surrounded  him  seemed  to 
throw  its  reflection  on  his  face  and  made  it  appear 
ashen.  His  moustache  had  no  longer  that  cocky, 
sprightly  upward  twist  we  all  know  so  well  from  the 
illustrated  papers.  He  was  more  like  one  of  Rae- 
maekers'  cartoons  than  any  photograph  I  have  seen  of 
him. 

He  wore  a  long  coat,  and  broad  leather  belt  with 


214  BEHIND  THE  GERMAN  VEIL 

revolver  holster  and  sword.  In  the  third  buttonhole 
was  the  black  and  white  ribbon  of  the  Iron  Cross,  while 
the  Order  of  Merit  showed  near  his  collar.  As  head- 
gear, he  wore  the  ordinary  officer's  helmet  —  covered 
with  grey  ma-terial  —  not  the  elaborate  Prussian 
Guard's  affair  with  the  eagle  perched  on  top.  I  had 
ample  opportunity  to  take  in  all  these  details,  as  for 
nearly  half  an  hour  I  stood  less  than  thirty  feet  away 
from  him,  and  frequently  came  even  closer  than  that. 

The  plaj'ing  of  the  National  Anthem  stirred  up  vivid 
memories.  As  you  know,  it  is  the  same  melody  as  that 
of  "  God  save  the  King."  The  last  time  I  had  heard  it 
at  a  military  ceremony  was  at  Furnes,  the  Belgian 
Headquarters,  when  King  George  paid  a  visit  to  King 
Albert.  But  I  must  frankly  admit  that  the  spectacle 
before  me  greatly  appealed  to  my  imagination.  One 
could  not  help  it.     It  gripped  one  in  spite  of  oneself. 

The  "  Fahnencompagnie,"  consisting  of  twenty  stand- 
ard bearers,  and,  preceded  by  two  regimental  bands, 
paraded  before  the  Kaiser  in  the  famous  goose  step, 
several  officers  leading.  Some  of  the  flags  still  retained 
their  new  lustre,  but  most  of  them  were  soiled  and  bat- 
tle-torn. The  troops,  thousands  of  grey-clad  soldiers, 
old  men  with  young  eyes,  and  young  men  with  old  eyes, 
bearded  grandfathers  lithe  and  lean,  presented  arms, 
and  as  they  cheered  their  very  hearts  and  souls  seemed 
to  go  out  towards  their  Kaiser.  That  exclamation, 
*'  Hoch !  "  appeared  to  express  the  undcfinable  German 
spirit  underlying  the  words :  "  With  God  for  King  and 
Fatherland."  The  Kaiser  and  his  whole  Staff  stood 
rigidly  at  attention,  and  saluted  when  the  standards 
passed  by.  As  the  troops  were  all  Prussian  the  bands 
played:  "  I  am  a  Prussian,  knowest  thou  m}^  colours." 

It  was  a  most  magnificent  and  splendidly  spectacular 
sight. 


WHEN  I  PRAYED  WITH  THE  KAISER      215 

Arrived  at  the  altar,  the  standard-bearers  ranged 
themselves  on  both  sides  of  it ;  the  Staff  took  up  the 
centre,  while  the  Kaiser  stood  a  little  in  advance  of 
them  all,  facing  the  altar  and  the  priest. 

The  personality  of  the  Kaiser  fascinated  me.  He 
stood  there,  straight  as  a  dart,  statue-like,  silent  and 
thoughtful.  Every  once  in  a  while  he  joined  in  the 
singing  of  the  Psalms,  but  most  of  the  time  he  was 
staring  straight  in  front  of  him  with  a  vacuous  and 
faraway  look  in  his  eyes,  showing  preoccupation  of 
mind.  He  did  not  look  at  all  the  part  of  the  great 
War  Lord.  It  seemed  almost  inconceivable  that  that 
solitary,  lonel3'-looking  figure  (somehow  his  surround- 
ings seemed  to  have  vanished  from  my  mind's  eye) 
should  be  the  man  who  is  largely  responsible  for  this 
terrible  world-tragedy. 

When  the  clergyman  began  his  sermon  the  spell,  at 
least  as  far  as  I  was  concerned,  was  suddenl}'  broken. 
I  do  not  remember  much  of  what  he  said.  It  was  noth- 
ing very  brilliant  or  new,  just  the  usual  cant  about 
Germany  and  her  enemies.  He  praised  the  German 
spirit  and  the  love  for  Kaiser  and  Fatherland;  the 
splendid  deeds  they  had  achieved;  but  he  warned  them 
not  to  forget  God,  who  "  holds  the  fate  of  Empires  in 
the  hollow  of  His  hand," — but  being  a  just  God,  would 
give  the  German  people  the  power  and  ability  to  be 
successful  in  defending  their  hearths  and  homes,  and 
who  would  enable  them  to  hold  in  pawn  the  foreign 
territories  until  Germany  could  secure  an  honourable 
peace. 

The  blessing  of  the  troops  that  followed  was  another 
most  inspiring  ceremony.  The  standards  were  lowered ; 
Kaiser,  officers  and  men  bent  their  knees  and  received 
bare-headed  the  priest's  blessing. 


216  BEHIND  THE  GERMAN  VEIL 

Anotlier  Psalm,  in  which  the  Kaiser  eagerly  joined, 
and  which  ended  with  "  Lord,  deliver  us,"  concluded  the 
religious  part  of  the  service. 

Again  a  few  short  commands  ran  along  the  lines. 
Then  once  more  an  expectant  hush  fell  over  the  large 
assembly  —  the  Emperor  was  going  to  speak. 

His  voice  was  grave,  and  not  as  firm  and  powerful  as 
one  would  expect  from  the  All-Highest  War  Lord.  He 
left  several  sentences  unfinished.  He  thanked  his  sol- 
diers, officers  and  generals,  and  assured  them  of  the 
Fatherland's  eternal  gratitude.  Of  course,  he  spoke 
of  their  great  Ally,  "  The  One  above  " — "  He  upon 
whom  my  father  and  my  grandfather  have  always  relied 
will  not  desert  us,  for  His  Spirit  will  always  live  in  the 
German  army  and  in  the  German  people."  His  con- 
cluding sentence  was :  "  The  power  of  our  enemies 
must  be  broken ;  they  must  be  brought  to  their  knees  " 
("  niedergeworfen  werden  "). 

General  Mackensen  then  spoke  a  few  words,  after 
which  the  regiments  formed  fours,  and  paraded  past 
the  Emperor.  The  noise  of  the  "  Paradeschritt " 
seemed  to  compete  with  the  distant  rumblings  of  the 
guns,  making  the  frozen  ground  shake  and  tremble. 

Then  the  troops  dispersed  to  their  different  encamp- 
ments, billets  and  dug-outs ;  the  anti-aircraft  guns  were 
removed,  and  two  aviators  that  had  been  circling  over- 
head flew  off  to  their  respective  bases. 


CHAPTER  XXVII 

HINDENBURG  LUDENDORFF    AND    FALKENHATN 

"  War  means  attack.  Whoever  seeks  his  salvation  behind  forti- 
fications and  trenches  is  lacking  in  conscious  strength." — Field- 
Mabshal  Colmah  von  der  Goltz. 

THERE  were  few  officers  of  Hindenburg's  army  with 
whom  I  spoke  that  would  not  at  some  time  or 
other  during  the  conversation  refer  to  the  above  quota- 
tion.    I  wonder  what  they  are  thinking  about  it  now.f* 

Though  the  general  public  hears  comparatively  little 
about  Ludendorff,  in  military  circles  Hindenburg  is 
never  mentioned  without  him.  He  is  usually  referred 
to  as  Hindenburg's  "  silent  partner."  It  was  Major 
von  Bitterfeld  who  first  drew  my  attention  to  Luden- 
dorff,^ with  his  mysterious  hint :  "  Hindenburg  is 
great,  but  Ludendorff  is  his  Chief  of  Staff." 

By  judicious  questioning  I  learnt  a  great  deal  about 
this  partnership  between  Hindenburg  and  Ludendorff.^ 
It  would  considerably  cool  the  fanatical  enthusiasm  of 
the  German  people  for  the  "  Deliverer  of  East  Prussia," 
if  they  knew  the  very  important  part  played  in  the 
Eastern  campaign  by  Ludendorff. 

It  is  Ludendorff  who  has  studied  the  Russian  organ- 
isation, the  Russian  army  and  the  Russian  manner  of 
fighting  all  his  life.  He  and  his  immediate  subordinate 
on  the  Staff,  Colonel  Hoffmann,  were  attached  to  the 
Russian  armies  during  the  Russo-Japanese  war,  and,  as 

I  See  Chapter  XVIII. 

I I  was  not  surprised  to  hear  that  when  the  great  ninn  was  re- 
cently promoted  he  insisted  upon  taking  his  Chief  of  Staff  with 
him. 

217 


218  BEHIND  THE  GERMAN  VEIL 

he  is  sometimes  quoted  to  have  said,  he  learnt  then  how 
to  beat  the  Russians.  It  was  Ludendorff,  the  great 
expert  on  railroad  traiisportation,  who  planned  and 
mapped  out  the  Battle  of  Tannenberg,  the  attack  on 
Warsaw,  and  the  great  second  Battle  of  the  Masurian 
Lake  district  in  February,  1915.  But  Ludendorff,  a 
tall,  reserved,  silent  German,  has  always  remained  in  the 
background,  and  his  Chief  received  all  the  kudos.  The 
German  people  must  have  some  one  to  worship,  and  it 
would  never  do  to  show  them  that,  after  all,  their  idol 
has  only  feet  of  clay.  When  Hindenburg  was  recalled 
from  retirement,  and  asked  to  take  charge  of  the  army 
operating  in  East  Prussia,  one  of  the  first  things  he 
insisted  upon  was  that  Ludendorff  should  be  appointed 
as  his  Chief  of  Staff.  The  latter  was  at  the  time  in 
Belgium  earning  fame  and  honour,  but,  in  accordance 
with  Hindenburg's  wishes,  was  transferred.  In  fact, 
I  was  told,  by  an  informant  who  knows  both,  that 
Ludendorff  returned  from  Belgium  via  Hanover,  where 
the  old  General  joined  him.  Speaking  about  Luden- 
dorff's  activities  in  Belgium,  I  was  told  that  he  was  the 
first  General  to  enter  Liege,  and,  not  as  a  Staff  officer, 
but  at  the  head  of  his  brigade.  It  seemed  that  the 
brigade  commander  in  question  had  been  killed,  and 
Ludendorff  at  once  took  his  place.  For  this  achieve- 
ment he  was  decorated  by  the  Kaiser  with  the  Order  of 
Merit. 

If  you  can  persuade  a  German  officer  of  the  higher 
command  to  discuss  with  you  the  abortive  Paris  cam- 
paign, Ludendorff's  name  will  invariably  be  mentioned. 
It  was  said  that  he  was  violently  opposed  to  von  Kluck's 
forced  march ;  he  wanted  to  take  Calais  first,  and  from 
there  advance  on  Paris.  The  same  informant,  who 
gave  me  a  great  deal  of  reliable  information,  and  who 
knows  Ludendorff  personally,  said  that  if  von  Kluck 


HINDENBURG,  219 

and  von  Biilow,  commanding  respectively  the  first  and 
second  armies,  had  been  given  a  week  more,  Paris  would 
have  fallen.  Von  Kluck,  by  his  forced  march,  lost 
touch  with  von  Biilow,  and  stood,  so  to  speak,  before 
the  walls  of  Paris  without  any  heavy  artillery. 

In  intimate  German  military  circles  many  interesting 
stories  abound  in  connection  with  the  first  great  Ger- 
man War  Council  that  decided  the  initial  strategy  of 
the  campaign.  The  Kaiser,  his  son,  and  General  von 
Moltke  seem  to  have  been  the  three  extremists  with  re- 
gard to  the  Paris  plan.  It  is  said,  or  rather  whis- 
pered, that  both  von  Kluck  and  von  BiiloAV,  and  even 
Falkenhayn,  were  opposed  to  it,  at  least  in  so  far  as  it 
meant  hacking  through  within  the  shortest  possible 
time,  which,  so  they  feared,  would  make  it  impossible 
for  them  to  establish  the  proper  communication  lines. 
But  the  objections  of  the  majority  were  overruled  by 
the  minority.  In  military  circles  the  Kaiser  and  Crown 
Prince  are  largely  blamed  for  the  great  Paris  failure; 
but  it  is  admitted  that  it  was  a  bold  Napoleonic  incep- 
tion, a  great  gamble,  which,  had  it  been  successful, 
would  have  ended  the  war  in  three  months.  Of  course, 
they  were,  and  for  that  matter  still  are,  quite  convinced 
that  with  the  fall  of  Paris  France  would  sue  for  peace. 
In  fact,  I  was  assured  in  Berlin  that  when  von  Kluck 
closed  in  on  Paris,  France  intimated  her  readiness  to 
negotiate  peace  conditions. 

To  return  for  a  moment  to  von  Kluck's  reported  ob- 
jections at  the  Great  War  Council  in  regard  to  his  lines 
of  communication,  it  is  interesting  to  note  that  in  Ger- 
man military  circles  —  again  I  must  qualify  this  by 
adding  that  these  matters  Avcre  only  discussed  amongst 
officers  of  the  higher  command  —  the  British  army,  by 
its  splendid  stand  at  Le  Cateau  and  Cambrai,  and  its 
subsequent  forward  thrust  that  endangered  von  Kluck'a 


220  BEHIND  THE  GERMAN  VEIL 

right  flank,  is  held  largely  responsible  for  the  upsetting 
of  the  German  plan. 

The  causes  of  the  troubles  between  Hindenburg  and 
Falkenhayn  have  been  widely  discussed  in  the  Allied 
Press,  and  are  by  now  fairly  well  known.  They  can  be 
summed  up  in  two  words :  "  East  "  and  "  West."  Hin- 
denburg and  Ludendorff  had  all  their  plans  prepared 
for  a  break  through  to  Petrograd  this  year.  Who 
knows  what  might  have  happened  at  the  Eastern  front 
if  Falkenhayn  had  not  insisted  upon  "  taking  "  Verdun? 
I  think  he  deserves  the  eternal  gratitude  of  the  Allies. 
During  the  winter  months  of  the  Eastern  campaign  the 
German  lines  there  are  largely  held  by  barbed  wire  and 
machine-guns. 

Falkenhayn,  on  account  of  his  Austrian  descent,  was 
in  the  latter  part  of  his  command  very  unpopular. 
They  tell  a  rather  grim  story.  Hindenburg  is  sup- 
posed to  have  put  the  following  conundrum  to  him: 
"  What  is  the  best  part  of  Austria?  "  And  the  answer 
is  "  Her  Ally."  One  of  Falkenhayn's  nicknames  is 
"  Falschenhayn  "  ("  falsch  "  for  "  false  "). 

One  of  Hindenburg's  Staff  Captains  I  met,  a  Haupt- 
mann  Frantz,  was  on  von  Kluck's  Staff  in  the  early  part 
of  the  war,  and  he  proudly  informed  me  that  he  was  one 
of  the  very  few  officers  who  had  caught  a  glimpse  of 
the  Eiffel  Tower.  I  did  not  tell  him  so,  but  I  think  it 
will  be  the  only  glimpse  he  will  catch  of  it  during  the 
war. 

To  return  to  Ludendorff  for  a  moment.  Two  of  his 
famous  maxims  are  said  to  be: 

"  A  General  Staff  must  have  no  nerves.  A  nervous 
Staff  makes  a  whole  army  restless." 

"  You  cannot  conduct  war  with  sentimentality." 


LUDENDORFF,  FALKENHAYN     221 

There  has  been  a  certain  amount  of  speculation  as  to 
why  new  titles  have  been  created  for  Hindenburg  and 
Ludendorff  in  their  recent  promotion.  Since  the  days 
of  old  Moltke  the  official  designation  has  always  been 
"  Chief  of  the  General  Staff  of  the  Field  Army."  I 
wonder  whether  Hindenburg's  contempt  for  the  Berlin 
General  Staff  had  anything  to  do  with  this.''  He  used 
to  describe  the  officers  of  the  Berlin  Staff,  as  I  have 
already  mentioned,  as  "Salon  Offiziere "  ("drawing- 
room  officers"),  the  men  who  remain  safely  in  Berlin 
and  never  even  get  their  boots  contaminated  with  trench 
mud.  I  have  been  wondering  whether  "  of  the  Field 
Army  "  is  Hindenburg's  own  special  addition,  so  as  to 
disown  any  connection  with  the  "  drawing-room  "  staff. 


CHAPTER  XXVIII 

RAILROADS 

ONE  of  old  Moltke's  legacies  to  the  German  General 
Staff  was   a   warning   "  to   build   railroads,   rail- 
roads, and  still  more  railroads." 

"  Railroads  instead  of  forts,"  he  always  impressed 
upon  his  officers.  To  all  appearances  his  advice  has 
been  well  heeded.  Germany  has  to-day  nearly  forty 
thousand  miles  of  railway  lines.  From  the  moment 
mobilisation  is  proclaimed  every  railway  employe  is  at 
the  disposal  of  the  military  authorities.  For  special 
work,  such  as  the  building  of  new  lines  (in  Belgium, 
Poland,  etc.),  the  rebuilding  of  destroyed  tracks  and 
bridges,  and  for  all  work  connected  with  strategical 
matters,  two  special  (Prussian,  of  course)  Railway 
Brigades  are  employed.  (Bavaria  has  one  Railway 
Battalion.) 

At  the  General  Staff  building  in  Berlin  is  a  large 
room  where  every  railway  line  in  Germany  is  laid  out  in 
miniature.  With  one  glance  the  Chief  of  the  depart- 
ment —  Hauptmann  von  Brauwitz  —  can  tell  to  within 
a  few  miles  where  a  certain  train  is  or  will  be  at  any 
given  hour  of  the  day  or  night.  Fascinated,  I  have 
watched  Brauwitz  and  his  assistant,  when  they  were 
moving,  by  electricity,  and  from  data  contained  in  end- 
less telegrams,  little  steel  blocks,  each  of  them  repre- 
senting a  troop  train  or  transport,  into  their  latest 
positions. 

I  am  told  that  the  railroad  lines  in  Poland  have  been 

222 


RAILROADS  223 

changed  five  times  from  the  broad  Russian  to  the  stand- 
ard German  gauge.  Germany,  during  the  last  seven 
years,  has  built  thousands  of  railroad  cars  with  ad- 
justable axles,  which  can  be  used  on  either  the  broad 
or  the  standard  tracks. 

During  the  heavy  fighting  in  East  Prussia  troop 
trains  were  run  with  an  interval  of  from  six  to  seven 
and  a  half  minutes.  Hindenburg  juggled  his  army 
corps  about  from  Southern  to  Northern  Poland,  from 
Galicia  to  East  Prussia,  as  if  they  were  so  many  pawns. 
Armies  of  three  hundred  thousand  men,  with  bag  and 
baggage,  have  been  transferred  nearly  seven  hundred 
miles  in  four  days. 

Where  can  one  find  here  an  analogy  with  conditions 
in  1812?     Frankly  speaking,  I  can  see  none. 

There  are  eleven  through  lines  that  run  east;  then 
there  is  the  strategic  railroad  parallel  to  the  whole 
frontier  line,  which  starts  at  Myslowitz,  in  South-east- 
ern Silesia,  near  the  point  where  Austria,  Germany  and 
Poland  meet,  and  runs  to  Memel  at  the  extreme  north 
of  East  Prussia. 

Since  the  beginning  of  the  German  advance  into 
Poland  hundreds  of  miles  of  light  railways  (gauge  60 
cm.^  24  inches,  described  as  "  field  railways  ")  have 
been  built.  It  is  claimed  that  they  have  proved  so  far 
a  very  fair  substitute  for  the  regular  permanent  way. 
They  have  proved  invaluable  in  Poland.  German  rail- 
way experts  maintain  that  three  companies  of  their 
corps  can  build  from  a  mile  and  a  half  to  two  miles  of 
new  —  normal  gauge  —  permanent  way  a  day.  On 
long  stretches,  taking  into  account  all  unforeseen  cir- 
cumstances, they  calculate  on  a  mile  a  day. 

Although  these  emergency  single-track  lines  have  not 
the  capacity  of  the  ordinary  peace-time-built  railroads, 


m4i  BEHIND  THE  GERMAN  VEIL 

they  can  transport  twenty-four  troop  trains  or  their 
equivalent  a  day.  The  change  from  broad  to  normal 
gauge  is  not  as  laborious  as  one  might  think.  The 
Russian  rails  are  laid  on  wooden  sleepers,  so  the  re- 
placing of  one  rail  can,  if  carried  out  by  experts,  be 
done  in  a  very  short  time. 

Speaking  about  bridges,  I  always  looked  upon  a 
bridge  as  something  strong  and  solid,  something  lasting. 
But  since  I  have  seen  bridges  occupying  the  most  ludi- 
crous positions  over  the  Vistula,  the  Njemen,  the  Narew, 
the  Bsura,  I  have  changed  my  mind. 

A  German  troop  train  usually  carries  about  one  bat- 
talion of  infantry ;  one  and  a  half  squadrons  of  cavalry, 
or  one  battery  of  artillery.  (A  German  battery  has 
six  guns.)  For  the  transportation  of  an  entire  anny 
corps  (about  42,000  men),  with  all  its  paraphernalia, 
transports,  horses,  automobiles,  ambulances,  guns,  etc., 
about  one  hundred  and  forty  trains  are  required. 

There  are  sixteen  through  —  i.e.,  main  —  railway 
lines  to  the  W^estern  frontier.  An  officer  of  the  Rail- 
way Corps  of  the  G.  G.  S.,  whom  I  met  in  Berlin, 
claimed  that  during  the  first  days  of  the  mobilisation, 
when  troops  had  to  be  quickly  concentrated  in  the 
Western  theatre  of  war,  they  ran  a  military  train  every 
ten  minutes  on  every  main  line.  In  other  words,  an 
army  corps  a  day.  On  the  first  day  of  mobilisation 
there  passed  through  Cologne,  from  8  p.  m.  till  4  a.  m., 
sixty-four  troop  trains,  on  one  track  without  the  least 
hitch. 

What  truth  there  is  in  these  assertions  I  cannot  say, 
but  I  do  know  that  the  hundreds  of  troop  trains  that 
I  saw  in  various  parts  of  Germany  and  Poland,  fol- 
lowed each  other  at  intervals  of  from  eight  to  fifteen 
minutes. 


CHAPTER  XXIX 

EETKOSPECT 

THE  three  outstanding  sensations  of  those  fourteen 
days  in  Poland,  as  I  look  back  on  them  now,  seem 
to  be:  Fascination,  horror  and  cold.  Yet  with  it  all  it 
was  an  interesting  experience.  When  I  try  to  focus  my 
mind  on  the  many  and  varied  scenes  I  witnessed,  they 
stand  out  against  a  largo  white  background  of  snow 
and  woods.  On  this  background,  then,  there  appear 
gradually  in  my  mind's  eye  smaller  details  of  men, 
transports  and  animals ;  thousands  and  thousands  of 
Russian  prisoners,  and  long  sinister  processions  of  am- 
bulance sleighs  crawling  along,  sometimes  over  tracks 
that  were  called  roads  only  by  courtesy.  I  saw  all 
sorts  and  descriptions  of  wounded  Germans,  and  not  a 
single  one  can  I  remember  who  did  not  have  that  look 
in  his  eyes  signifying  absolute  apathy  of  the  future. 

I  will  try  here  to  reconstruct  some  of  the  scenes. 

An  interesting  phenomenon  to  me  was  the  anxious 
way  in  which  the  lightly  wounded  clung  to  their  rifles. 

They  would  —  most  of  them  already  had  —  discard 
the  larger  part  of  their  kit,  but  their  rifles  they  jeal- 
ously guarded.  The  sentiment  is  a  very  logical  one  if 
one  stops  to  think.  It  was  explained  to  me  as  follows : 
"  You  see,  as  long  as  you  are  in  possession  of  your 
rifle,  you  are  practically  considered  undefeated.  But 
lose  it,  and  you  are  marked  with  the  ominous  stamp  of 
failure  and  defeat.  Why?  Because  it  may,  in  spite  of 
all  protestations  to  the  contrary,  indicate  that  at  some 

225 


2«6  BEHIND  THE  GERMAN  VEIL 

time  or  another  you  have  thrown  up  jour  hands  in 
token  of  surrender." 

In  East  Prussia,  following  close  on  the  heels  of  the 
German  armies,  the  roads  were  covered  with  returning 
refugees.  With  their  few  belongings  loaded  on  all  kinds 
of  vehicles,  drawn  by  some  prehistoric  horse,  mule  or 
donkey,  they  slowly  wound  their  weary  way  towards 
their  homesteads  and  villages.  Few  knew  what  they 
were  going  to  find  when  returning  home.  Their  house 
or  cottage  intact,  or  swept  away  by  the  fierce  blast  of 
war.  Would  they  sleep  once  more  under  their  own 
roofs  or  was  it  to  be  under  the  cold  grey  sky.?  "  Quien 
sabe?" 

"  But  what  matter  —  Nitchewo.  We  shall  be  back 
on  our  own  few  square  feet  of  land  amongst  our  own 
people  and  presently  we  shall  start  building  up  again." 
Thus  a  little  old  grey-haired  mother  with  whom  I  en- 
tered into  conversation  for  a  few  moments  while  she  was 
resting  at  the  wayside.  *'  We  may  have  lost  much,  but 
oh,  thousands  and  thousands  have  lost  a  great  deal 
more."  And  with  a  "  Griiss  Gott,  Herr,  Griiss  Gott," 
and  a  wee  curtsy,  the  old  lady  joined  the  rest  of  her 
family  and  trudged  along. 

Mlawa,  a  medium-sized  Polish  town,  was  one  large 
hospital.  Being  situated  on  the  direct  railway  to  War- 
saw (about  one  hundred  miles  northwest  of  that  city), 
it  was  on  one  of  the  main  communication  arteries  with 
the  front.  Every  house  was  a  hospital.  The  proces- 
sion of  motor-ambulances,  sleighs  and  carts,  loaded 
with  wounded,  seemed  unending.  Again,  there  was  that 
eloquent  language  of  the  boots.  Have  you  ever  watched 
a  number  of  ambulances  pass  by  filled  with  wounded? 
And  have  you  noticed  the  various  expressions  trans- 


RETROSPECT  ^27 

mitted  by  the  boots  that  stick  out  and  are  the  only  part 
you  see  of  the  wounded  man?  To  me  there  is  nothing 
so  pathetic,  no  story  so  human  and  sad,  as  that  which 
is  told  b}'  the  four  pairs  of  boot-soles  staring  at  you 
from  the  back  of  an  ambulance  car. 

There  were  three  reserve  regiments  stationed  at 
Mlawa  as  well,  and,  consequently,  in  man}'  houses  half 
the  rooms  were  sick  wards,  while  the  other  half  were 
used  by  the  reserve  troops.  Naturally  this  frequently 
led  to  great  confusion.  While  waiting  for  some  repairs 
to  be  made  on  the  car  we  entered  one  of  those  houses. 
In  one  room  the  smell  of  tobacco,  rum,  coffee  and  hot 
claret  intermingled,  while  from  the  one  next  door  came 
the  sickly  odour  of  carbolic,  iodine,  and  other  antisep- 
tics. The  majority  of  the  wounded  were  bedded  on 
straw  and  lay  very  close  together.  If  the  true  history 
of  the  Njemen  battle  is  ever  written,  it  certainly  will 
show  that  on  this  occasion  at  least  the  German  system 
and  thoroughness  failed  lamentably  as  far  as  its  medi- 
cal arrangements  were  concerned.  The  blame  was  laid 
on  the  condition  of  the  Polish  roads. 

As  fast  as  train  accommodation  could  be  found  for 
them,  the  wounded  were  transported  to  Germany.  But 
it  would  seem  that  there  were  not  cars  enough  in  the 
land  to  hold  the  thousands  and  thousands  of  casualties 
that  were  brought  up  from  the  firing  line. 

Here,  as  elsewhere,  my  knowledge  of  German  came 
in  most  useful.  It  enabled  me  to  talk  to  the  non-com- 
missioned officers  and  men,  several  of  whom  I  found 
most  communicative  and  critical.  I  was  told  by  two 
sergeants  that  their  regiment  had  been  in  the  trenches 
before  Grodno  for  ten  days,  during  which  time  they  had 
not  received  a  mouthful  of  hot  food.  A  heavy  snow- 
storm had  made  the  roads  and  other  approaches  to  the 


228  BEHIND  THE  GERMAN  VEIL 

trenches  absolutely  impassable,  so  that  the  field-kitchens 
could  not  get  anywhere  near  them.  The  only  supplies 
they  got  were  bread  and  lard. 

While  I  was  sitting  in  front  of  a  stove  (I  am  still  at 
Mlawa)  to  get  my  feet  dry,  the  door  was  suddenly  burst 
open,  and  a  man,  yelling  at  the  top  of  his  voice,  an- 
nounced :  "  We  have  taken  five  thousand  prisoners  at 
Kirbaty."  For  a  moment  the  news  seemed  to  stun  the 
occupants  of  the  room,  but  for  a  few  seconds  only. 
Then  fourteen  voices  broke  out  into  a  perfect  bedlam 
of  "  Hochs  !  "  and  "  Hurrahs  !  "  Glasses,  tumblers,  tin 
cups,  bottles,  and  every  other  kind  of  receptacle,  were 
lifted  high  and  drained  deep.  The  wounded  were  for- 
gotten. We  are  victorious,  what  matter  the  price?  A 
young  boy  in  the  corner,  who  had  both  his  legs  shat- 
tered, kept  on  repeating  hoarsely :  "  Five  thousand 
prisoners;  five  thousand  prisoners."  But  though  his 
lips  formulated  the  words  his  mind  was  elsewhere.  His 
eyes  were  moist,  and  when  a  little  later  he  dozed  off  to 
sleep  again,  as  the  result  of  a  merciful  anaesthetic,  he 
still  whispered :  "  Five  thousand  prisoners  ;  five  thou- 
sand prisoners,"  but  interspersed  with :     "  Mother." 

Then  there  were  the  many  nights  when  I  was  kept 
awake  by  the  steady  tramp  of  marching  troops,  and 
the  shrill  commands  of  the  officers.  One  night,  in  the 
neighbourhood  of  Prasnysz,  when  the  car  had  broken 
down,  I  was  trying  to  snatch  a  few  hours'  sleep  in  a 
wretched  little  country  inn.  My  room  was  minus  win- 
dows, door,  or  fire,  and  the  temperature  five  degrees 
below  "  zero."  About  midnight  there  was  a  big  com- 
motion under  my  "  window."  Cursing,  shouting, 
whistling,  as  much  uproar  as  if  the  Russians  were  in 
hot  pursuit.     The  cause  of  the  hubbub  was  the  broken 


RETROSPECT  229 

axle  of  an  ammunition  wagon.  It  was  holding  up  a 
long  line  of  transports.  A  few  extra  teams  were  taken 
from  the  carts  behind,  a  few  dozen  men  gripped  the 
spokes  of  the  wheels,  and  the  wagon  was  with  great 
difficulty  dragged  into  the  ditch,  and  left  there  in  the 
care  of  the  two  drivers.  I  stood  at  the  window  for  an 
hour  or  more  and  watched  the  passing  procession  in  the 
dim  light  of  a  misty  moon.  There  were  Prussians, 
Saxons,  Bavarians,  Brandenburgers,  Chasseurs,  artil- 
lery, wireless  telegraphy  wagons,  field-kitchens  and 
bakeries,  all  trekking  through  the  night  towards  the 
blood-red  dawn  glimmering  in  the  east.  In  the  distance 
flashes  of  light  and  detonations  of  guns  were  bidding 
them  their  inhospitable  welcome.  Every  now  and  then 
some  section  made  a  feeble  effort  to  start  a  song,  but  it 
seldom  met  with  much  response.  They  have  a  new  song 
in  Germany  these  days,  which  might  be  called  the  equiva- 
lent of  the  British  "  Are  we  downhearted?  "  The  re- 
frain runs : 

"Not  every  bullet  finds  its  mark, 
For  if  every  bullet  did, 
Where  would  Kings  and  Emperors  find  their  soldiers?" 

No,  not  every  bullet  finds  its  mark,  but  from  what  I 
saw  that  day  at  Mlawa,  many  of  them  did. 

At  Skierniwiece,  about  forty-five  miles  southwest  of 
Warsaw,  I  spent  a  night  with  a  Polish  doctor's  family, 
and  learned  many  interesting  things  about  the  German 
reign  of  terror.  I  saw  several  army  orders  printed  in 
Polish  and  German,  which  warned  the  population 
against  any  act  of  violence  committed  against  the  Ger- 
man troops.  The  penalties  threatened,  in  addition,  of 
course,  to  the  execution  of  the  offenders,  were:  "In 
the  case  of  one  shot  being  fired,  the  house  from  which 


230  BEHIND  THE  GERMAN  VEIL 

it  came  would  be  burned  down ;  in  the  case  of  two  shots 
the  whole  street  would  be  destroyed ;  but  if  three  shots 
were  fired,  the  whole  town  would  be  razed  to  the 
ground." 

The  same  old  code,  the  same  old  story  as  in  the  West, 
Any  inhabitant  who  was  found  in  the  streets  after  8 
p.  M.  was  liable  to  be  shot.  The  inhabitants  must  agree 
to  do  the  washing  for  the  troops  at  a  reasonable  tariff, 
to  be  fixed  by  the  German  authorities. 

One  man  at  Skierniwiece  was  dragged  before  a  court 
and  accused  of  having  supplied  a  number  of  German 
soldiers  with  poisonous  intoxicating  liquor.  The  man 
was  a  small  cabinet  maker.  Several  Germans  one  day 
entered  his  place  and,  seeing  a  number  of  bottles  in  the 
corner,  requisitioned  them.  The  soldiers  did  not  speak 
a  word  of  Polish,  and  the  Pole  did  not  know  German. 
He  tried  his  best  to  prevent  them  from  taking  those 
bottles,  but  he  was  shown  the  butt-end  of  a  rifle  and  a 
fat  fist.  The  Germans  smellcd  the  bottles,  discovered, 
or  at  least  thought  they  did,  spirit  in  them.  They 
emptied  some  of  them  there  and  then,  and  took  the  re- 
mainder along  with  them. 

The  bottles  contained  furniture  polish,  and  evidently 
not  even  a  German  could  stomach  that ! 

In  this  great  desert  of  horrors  I  had  the  good  for- 
tune, though,  to  encounter  now  and  again  oases  of 
brotherly  love  and  sympathy. 

At  Augustowo  a  German  military  dentist  was  prac- 
tising his  profession  in  the  street.  A  number  of  sol- 
diers were  sitting  and  standing  about  waiting  their 
turn.  Amongst  the  spectators  were  an  old  Polish  Jew 
and  two  elderly  women.  They  followed  the  operations 
with  keen  and  anxious  interest,  now  and  then  putting 
their  hands  to  their  faces.     The  German  doctor  noticed 


RETROSPECT  231 

them,  and  walking  over  to  where  they  stood,  asked  them 
what  ailed  them. 

The  man  opened  his  mouth  and  pointed  to  something. 
The  two  women  simultaneously  wailed  out  their  story 
of  suffering.  The  doctor  chased  his  soldier  patient  out 
of  the  chair,  and  put  one  of  the  women  into  it.  After 
she  had  been  treated,  he  attended  the  other  woman,  and 
finally  took  the  old  Jew  in  hand.  The  two  females, 
in  an  awful  mixture  of  Polish,  German  and  hysterics, 
thanked  the  doctor,  and,  grasping  his  hand,  kissed  it 
eagerly.  The  Jew  gravely  shook  hands  with  his  bene- 
factor and  slowly  walked  away. 

One  cold  and  grey  morning,  while  driving  through  the 
extensive  forests  of  Augustowo,  we  came  across  a  scene 
that  would  have  touched  a  heart  of  stone.  A  giant 
Russian  was  sitting  cross-legged  in  oriental  fashion  in 
the  snow.  On  his  lap  he  pillowed  the  head  of  a  German 
private,  whose  stark  body,  long  since  cold  and  dead, 
was  covered  with  the  Russian's  overcoat.  An  empty 
flask  lay  beside  them  in  the  snow.  The  Russian's  left 
sleeve  was  soaked  with  blood,  and,  on  investigation,  we 
found  that  his  elbow  was  completely  smashed.  And 
the  man's  sole  comment  was:     "  Nitchewo." 

In  Kalish  I  saw  a  strange  queue  of  Polish  peasants 
holding  all  kinds  of  possible  and  impossible  receptacles, 
waiting  round  a  German  field-kitchen  for  the  distribu- 
tion of  hot  soup. 

I  do  not  think  that  any  of  these  scenes  had  been  got 
up  for  my  special  benefit. 

At  Kalish  my  personally  conducted  tour  through  the 
Eastern  theatre  of  war  ended.  I  bade  good-bye  to  my 
courteous  guide,  tipped  my  very  German  chauffeur  and 
his  armed  assistant,  the  man  with  the  Staff  horn,  and 
twelve  hours  later  I  was  back  In  Berlin. 


PART    III 

AN  INCOGNITO   VISIT  TO   THE  FLEET  AND 
GERMANY'S  NAVAL  HARBOURS 


CHAPTER  XXX 

THE    GERMAN    ADMIRALTY 

"T^rE  are  not  going  to  take  any  chances  with  our 
V  V  fleet."  How  often  I  heard  that  statement 
during  the  months  I  spent  in  Germany  in  1915 !  You 
may  listen  to  all  the  eulogies,  promises,  prophecies 
about  "  Unsere  wunderbare  Flotte,"  but  you  had  bet- 
ter refrain  from  asking  any  questions  about  it.  It 
may  cost  you  your  liberty  if  you  do.  Suppose  you  ask 
a  German  an  imprudent  question  about  the  Navy.  If 
you  are  luck}^  he  will  refer  you  to  the  German  Ad- 
miralty ;  if  you  are  unlucky,  you  will  probably  be  the 
guest  of  the  Government  the  next  day,  if  not  sooner. 
If  you  take  his  advice  and  go  to  the  Admiralty,  they 
usually  see  you  coming.  Oh !  the  many,  many  hours  I 
have  spent  trying  to  reach  the  vitals  of  that  palatial 
edifice,  so  symbolic  of  the  organisation  it  directs.  It 
is  spick  and  span  and  brand-new,  no  old  ramshackle 
building,  with  partitioned  rooms  in  all  sorts  of  corners 
and  corridors,  such  as  I  found  in  the  War  Office  on  the 
Leipziger  Strasse.  The  German  Admiralty  is  a  model 
building.  On  entering,  you  find  yourself  in  a  square, 
marble-columned  atrium,  which  reminds  one  of  the 
drawings  and  paintings  of  the  portals  of  the  old  Roman 
baths.  There  are  a  number  of  waiting-rooms  on  both 
sides,  and  that  is  as  far  as  ninety-nine  out  of  a  hun- 
dred people  get.  To  advance  beyond  the  doors  lead- 
ing into  the  "  hol\'  of  holies  "  is  a  labour  that  takes 
time,  influence  and  brains. 

I    shall   not   describe   the   devious   ways    and    means 
which  have  to  be  employed  in  order  to  obtain  admission 

235 


236  BEHIND  THE  GERMAN  VEIL 

to  the  temple  of  the  German  would-be  Neptune.  Suf- 
fice it  to  say  that,  after  having  secured  an  introduction 
to  Captain  Lohlein,  who  at  the  time  was  —  and  I  think 
still  is  —  a  high  official  at  the  Admiralty,  being  some- 
thing like  their  advertising  manager,  I  finally  passed 
through  the  inner  portals  of  the  sacred  edifice. 

Once  inside  the  building,  my  first  impression  was  a 
reminder  of  the  story  about  Lord  Kitchener  and  the 
War  Office:  "Is  there  a  bed  here?  No.  Then  go 
and  get  one."  Many  similar  orders  must  have  been 
given  at  the  "  Kaiserliches  INIarineamt."  In  several  of 
the  rooms  I  saw  a  field  bed  hidden  in  a  corner  or  behind 
a  screen.  Yes,  the  German  Navy  is  very  active  .  .  . 
in  Berlin. 

One  of  the  most  fascinating  departments  in  the 
"  Marineamt  "  (Admiralty)  in  Berlin  is  "  Abteilung 
XVI.,"  where  maps,  plans,  sketches,  etc.,  are  collected 
and  kept.  I  spent  an  interesting  morning  there  in 
Room  177,  and  feasted  my  eyes  on  many  excellently 
drawn  and  photographed  maps.  It  was  there  that  I 
saw  (for  the  first  time)  a  six  inch  to  the  mile  map  of 
Rosyth  Harbour ;  large  scale  maps  of  Plymouth,  Ports- 
mouth, Dover,  the  mouth  of  the  Thames,  the  entrance 
of  the  Mersey,  the  Liverpool  docks,  the  Portsmouth 
dockyards,  and  various  seaports ;  also,  a  map  of  Eng- 
land, with  the  places  marked  where  hostile  landings 
had  been  made.  I  doubt  whether  there  are  many  3'ards 
of  Great  Britain's  coast  that  were  not  carefully 
mapped  out  there. 

But  it  is  not  of  the  British  maps  I  wish  to  tell  you. 
I  was  far  more  interested  in  the  minute  drawings  and 
maps  of  Wilhelmshaven,  Kiel,  the  Kiel  Canal,  Heligo- 
land, the  North  Sea  coast  and  its  defences,  etc.  I  was 
naturally  most  anxious  to  "  borrow  "  them  for  a  little 
while.     But    that    was    easier    wished    than    executed. 


THE  GERMAN  ADMIRALTY  237 

Maps  from  eight  to  ten  feet  long,  fastened  on  rollers, 
are  not  quite  the  thing  to  "  borrow "  clandestine!}'. 
Nevertheless,  I  succeeded  in  obtaining  a  number  of 
copies,  much  smaller,  it  is  true,  but  exact  replicas  all 
the  same,  of  those  interesting  and  instructive  German 
drawings.  The  maps  accompanying  these  articles,  viz., 
the  general  map,  including  the  Kiel  Canal ;  those  of  the 
German  coast  defences  on  the  North  Sea  and  Heligo- 
land ;  the  large  scale  map  of  Wilhelmshaven,  and  the 
map  of  Kiel  Harbour  and  its  anchorages,  have  all  been 
drawn  from  those  facsimiles.  I  doubt  not  that  the 
German  Admiralty  would  very  much  like  to  know  how 
I  obtained  those  copies.     But  I  am  not  going  to  tell ! 

But  to  return  to  Captain  Lohlein.  He  was  a  very 
pleasant,  suave  gentleman,  but,  unfortunately,  they 
were  not  doing  any  advertising  just  then  in  the  Navy. 
In  answer  to  my  inquiries,  whether  I  might  pay  a  visit 
to  Kiel,  Wilhelmshaven,  the  Canal,  Emden,  or  Heligo- 
land, I  received  a  point-blank  refusal.  "  Impossible ; 
absolutely  impossible !  "  was  the  answer.  In  short,  to 
use  the  well-worn  phrase,  "  Es  ist  verboten." 

I  knew  then  how  British  sailors  must  feel,  when  cruis- 
ing and  searching  the  North  Sea,  eager  for  a  sight  of 
the  German  pennant.  So  near  and  yet  so  far !  Here 
I  was  in  the  heart  of  the  enemy's  country,  and,  what's 
more,  at  large,  hardly  the  toss  of  a  ship's  biscuit  from 
those  pioneers  of  Gennany's  future,  and  yet  unable  to 
feast  my  eyes  on  them.  Saddened  and  disappointed, 
I  turned  my  back  on  Berlin  and  the  inhospitable  officials 
of  the  Admiralty,  and  moved  to  the  free  city  of  Ham- 
burg on  the  Elbe.  Here,  after  a  while,  fortune  fa- 
voured me,  and  my  career  of  "  crime  "  began.  Through 
friends  and  acquaintances  and  other  mediums,  I  had 
several  chances  of  visiting  the  principal  defences  of 
Germany  on  the  North  Sea,     Short  clandestine  trips  to 


238  BEHIND  THE  GERMAN  VEIL 

the  coast ;  interesting,  if  brief,  voyages  on  all  sorts  of 
quaint  old  vessels;  railway  and  automobile  journeys  to 
various  parts  of  the  German  North  Sea  coast  —  in 
short  a  veritable  banquet  of  German  Navy  delicacies, 
with,  as  piece  de  resistance,  a  trip  through  the  Kiel 
Canal.     And  this  is  what  I  have  now  to  tell  you  about. 


l; 


n 


CHAPTER  XXXI 

Germany's  coast  defences 

FROM  what  I  gathered  during  those  trips,  I  believe 
there  is  not  another  defence  system  in  the  world 
that  can  be  compared  with  Germany's  two-hundred- 
mile  coast-line  on  the  North  Sea  (see  map).  I  have 
marked  the  forts  and  batteries  which  I  know  are  there, 
and  I  realise  that  I  have  by  no  means  discovered  them 
all.  Germany  possesses  on  her  North  Sea  border  the 
natural  advantages  of  shallow  waters  and  a  sandy,  flat 
coast,  which  in  themselves  afford  a  valuable  safeguard 
against  offensive  operations.  The  tide  rises  about  ten 
feet  on  the  Elbe,  and  from  six  to  seven  on  the  Frisian 
coast.  In  peace  the  various  sandbanks  and  dangerous 
places  are  marked  by  beacons  and  lights ;  but,  of  course, 
since  the  beginning  of  the  war  everything  that  might 
facilitate  navigation  has  been  removed.  The  harbours 
are  limited  to  those  on  the  Elbe,  the  Weser,  the  Jade, 
and  the  Ems.  They  are  approached  by  three  narrow 
and  tortuous  channels,  impossible  to  navigate  without 
a  pilot  or  expert  knowledge  of  the  charts.  That  is 
what  nature  has  done  for  Germany.  Science  and  art 
have  done  still  more. 

The  German  coast-defence  system  is  divided  into  two 
parts :  the  North  Sea  and  the  Baltic  Divisions,  each 
under  command  of  a  Vice-Admiral,  with  headquarters 
respectively  at  Wilhelmshaven  and  Kiel.  It  is  gener- 
ally understood  that  the  entire  system  is  controlled  by 
the  Navy,  That  is  not  quite  correct.  There  is  no 
organisation  in  Germany,  not  even  the  Navy,  in  which 

239 


240  BEHIND  THE  GERMAN  VEIL 

the  German  Army  does  not  play  some  part.  A  case  in 
point  is  the  Island  of  Borkum,  the  most  western  of  the 
Frisian  Islands,  and  practically  in  sight  of  Holland. 
It  guards  the  channels  leading  to  Emden  Harbour  and 
to  some  minor  ports  on  the  Frisian  coast.  Although 
one  of  the  most  important  units  of  the  North  Sea  forti- 
fications, it  is  a  military  base  and  under  control  of  the 
War  Office.  It  is  garrisoned  and  commanded  by  sol- 
diers. On  the  other  hand,  the  Island  of  Wangeroog, 
which  is,  so  to  speak,  on  the  right  flank  of  the  Frisian 
Islands,  and  guards  the  entrance  to  Wilhelmshaven  and 
the  Weser  mouth,  is  entirely  controlled  and  manned  by 
the  Navy.  Other  coast-defence  stations  which  have 
remained  under  control  of  the  Army  are  the  fortifica- 
tions at  Neufahrwasser  in  the  Baltic,  protecting  the 
mouth  of  the  Vistula,  the  forts  at  Pillau  at  the  entrance 
of  the  Frische  HafF,  the  approach  to  the  fortress  of 
Konigsberg,  and,  finally,  Swinemiinde,  guarding  the  en- 
trance of  the  Stettiner  Haflf,  the  mouth  of  the  Oder  and 
the  Vulcan  shipbuilding  yards. 

Every  unit  of  the  entire  system  —  i.e.,  every  harbour, 
dockyard,  fort,  battery,  nay,  I  believe  almost  every 
single  large  gun  —  is  connected  with  the  others  by  a 
strategical  railroad,  and,  in  a  smaller  degree,  by  a  sys- 
tem of  canals.  Thus  Emden,  on  the  extreme  west,  is 
connected  with  Memel  in  the  east,  almost  in  sight  of 
Russia.  The  heart  and  brains  of  this  great  web  are  at 
Kiel. 

A  great  many  improvements  are  being  made  at  Em- 
den. It  is  the  object  of  the  German  Admiralty  to 
make  this  part  another  strong  naval  base.  The  chan- 
nel leading  past  the  Island  of  Borkum  towards  Emden 
has  recently  been  deepened  to  forty  feet.  Borkum  is 
strongly  fortified.  It  has  two  batteries  of  10-  and  11- 
inch  guns,  and  a  15-  or  16-inch  howitzer  battery.      (A 


GERIVIANY'S  COAST  DEFENCES         241 

heavy  German  battery  consists  of  four  pieces.)  Em- 
den  is  connected  with  Wilhehnshaven  by  the  Ems-Jade 
Canal,  so  that  the  smaller  units  of  the  Navy  can  pass 
from  one  harbour  to  the  other  without  having  to  go  out- 
side. The  main  submarine  stations  on  the  North  Sea 
are  at  Wilhelmshaven  and  Heligoland,  with  sub-stations 
at  Emden,  Cuxhaven,  and  one  or  two  other  points. 

"  The  German  coast-defence  system,"  so  every  one 
will  assure  you,  "  is,  first  of  all,  an  offensive  defence, 
effected  through  submarines  and  torpedo-boats,  using 
the  coast  fortifications  as  a  base."  Furthermore,  if  I 
am  to  believe  some  of  my  informants,  those  people  who 
think  the  German  fleet  lies  inactive  in  the  Kiel  Canal 
are  entircl}'^  wrong.  It  is  continually  on  the  watch, 
and  its  ships  are  day  and  night  in  the  North  Sea,  often 
as  far  out  as  a  hundred  miles.  It  is  guai-ding  Ger- 
many's coast,  and  here  follows  a  description  of  how 
it  is  done: 

Draw  a  circle  with  Heligoland  as  its  centre,  the  cir- 
cumference passing  through  the  Island  of  Sylt  off  the 
Schleswig-Holstein  coast,  and  Borkum  off  that  of  Fries- 
land.  The  outer  semicircle,  having  a  radius  of  about 
sixty  miles,  is  patrolled  by  torpedo-boats,  which  are  on 
guard  day  and  night ;  and  they  will  report  at  once  any 
enemy  warships  that  may  venture  near.  Behind  this 
line  of  patrols  comes  a  cordon  of  fast  cruisers,  to  give 
the  "  thin  black  line  "  a  firm  background.  Finally,  a 
third  line  of  defence  is  formed  by  armoured  cruisers, 
which  act  as  a  reserve  and  a  support  for  the  cruisers 
and  torpedo-boats.  The  object  of  these  three  lines  of 
defence  is  to  engage  and  hold  back  any  attacking  enemy, 
until  the  Grand  Battle  Fleet  —  which  naturally  must 
remain  safely  in  harbour,  protected  from  submarine 
attacks  —  has  had  time  to  appear  on  the  scene.  In 
addition  to  these  offensive  lines  of  defence,  every  chan- 


242  BEHIND  THE  GERMAN  VEIL 

nel  leading  to  the  various  harbours  is  protected  by 
mines  and  submarines. 

We  may  next  examine  the  immobile  and  less  elusive 
lines  of  German  defence,  viz.,  its  coast  batteries  and 
forts.  The  Jade  Bay,  with  Wilhelmshaven,  is  pro- 
tected by  thirteen  or  fourteen  almost  impregnable  forts. 
The  surrounding  country  is  flat  and  marshy,  and  no  at- 
tempt has  been  made  in  most  cases  to  mask  the  forts. 
A  strategical  railroad  encircles  the  bay,  starting  at 
Eckwarden  and  terminating  at  the  Frederick  Lock  op- 
posite the  island  of  Spiekeroog.  Wilhelmshaven  is  a 
veritable  fortress  in  itself,  surrounded  by  smaller  forts 
and  supporting  batteries.  Across  the  bay  the  four 
guns  of  the  battery  at  Eckwarden  show  their  heavy 
muzzles,  while  still  further  east,  in  the  very  centre  of 
the  mouth  of  the  Weser,  lie  the  twin  forts,  Langliitjen 
1  and  2.  Bremerhaven,  again,  is  a  large  fortress,  sup- 
ported by  the  batteries  of  Forts  Geestemiinde  and  Lehe, 
and  several  forts  along  the  channel.  There  are  a  num- 
ber of  forts  from  Lehe  along  the  coast  as  far  as  Cux- 
haven,  which  is  another  important  defensive  centre. 
At  this  point  the  Elbe  fortifications  begin ;  and,  as  is 
the  case  at  Jade,  both  sides  of  the  bay  are  dotted  with 
batteries  and  forts,  from  Cuxhaven  to  Stade,  and  from 
Gliickstadt  to  Plattenbronne.  Brunsbiittel,  about  one 
and  a  half  miles  west  of  the  Kiel  Canal  entrance,  is  a 
separate  and  strongly-armed  fort. 

The  ordnance  of  Germany's  coast-defence  system  con- 
sists of  the  heaviest  Krupp  armament,  as  well  as  of 
lighter  guns,  the  calibres  ranging  from  17-inch  to  4.7- 
inch.  At  Wilhelmshaven,  at  Forts  1  and  2  Langliitjen, 
at  Cuxhaven,  and,  I  believe,  but  am  not  certain,  at 
Wangeroog  as  well,  the  17-inch  howitzers  predominate. 
The  calibres  most  iji  use  are  10-  and  11-inch.     Many 


GERMANY'S  COAST  DEFENCES         243 

of  these  guns  are  mounted  on  movable  platforms,  placed 
in  the  centre  of  heavy  steel  railroad  trucks,  strong 
enough,  it  seemed  to  me,  to  carry  a  whole  house.  The 
guns  themselves  are  protected  by  a  sort  of  cupola  of 
*'  Gruson  plate."  When  not  in  use,  they  are  stationed 
in  special  garages.  I  knew  now  the  purpose  of  all 
these  short  lines  and  connecting  railroads.  If  a  con- 
certed attack  on  any  point  of  the  coast  should  be  un- 
dertaken, these  railway  batteries  can  be  moved  rapidly 
to  the  place  where  they  are  most  needed. 

The  "  Gruson  plate  "  protected  cupolas  and  turrets 
are  a  formidable  and  interesting  feature  of  Germany's 
coast-defence  system.  Experiments  with  this  armour- 
plate  have  shown  that  it  is  practically  impervious  to 
gun-fire.  At  the  Krupps'  offices  in  Berlin,  there  are 
certain  official  reports  from  the  Italian  Government 
concerning  the  tests  to  which  Gruson  plates  have  been 
submitted.  A  plate,  weighing  nearly  200,000  lbs., 
and  intended  for  an  Italian  coastal  battery,  was  fired 
upon  at  point-blank  range  by  a  100-ton  Armstrong 
gun,  using  Krupp  steel  shells.  Three  shots  were  fired 
at  it,  each  projectile  weigliing  2,200  lbs.,  and  requiring 
a  powder  charge  of  nearly  800  lbs.  It  stood  the  test 
faultlessly,  and  the  only  damage  inflicted  on  it  were 
four  or  five  small  cracks,  varying  from  two  to  four 
inches  in  length.  The  steel  shells  that  struck  the  plate 
splintered  in  hundreds  of  bits,  which  were  so  hot  that 
they  set  fire  to  the  surrounding  woodwork.  I  have 
seen  those  Italian  reports,  and  I  have  no  reason  to 
doubt  their  authenticity.  If  an  Armstrong  gun  of  such 
calibre,  firing  steel  shells  at  point-blank  range,  is  un- 
able to  destroy  that  armour-plate,  there  seems  small 
chance  that  a  shell,  whatever  its  size,  fired  from  a  neces- 
sarily considerable  distance  by  a  ship's  gun,  will  make 
any  impression  at  all.     The  batteries  of  every  fort  of 


244  BEHIND  THE  GERMAN  VEIL 

any  importance,  both  on  the  Baltic  and  the  North  Sea, 
are  protected  by  this  armour-plate. 

The  cupolas  contain  mostly  8.2-inch  guns,  and  the 
turrets  the  10-inch,  11-inch  and  larger  calibres.  In 
naval  and  other  well-informed  German  circles,  they  are 
convinced  that  there  is  no  British  Admiral  living  who 
would  risk  his  ships  against  such  batteries. 

I  was  in  Germany  when  the  first  attempt  to  force 
the  Dardanelles  was  made.  Naturally,  the  whole  plan 
was  dismissed  as  incapable  of  execution.  Every  naval 
or  military  officer  with  whom  I  talked  was  convinced 
that  the  Narrows  could  never  be  forced  by  a  naval  at- 
tack. I  was  told  that,  shortly  after  Turkey  entered 
the  war,  one  of  the  first  things  Germany  saw  to  was 
that  the  batteries  of  the  Narrows  forts  were  strength- 
ened and  protected  by  Gruson  armour-plate.  Whether 
this  assertion  is  true  or  not,  I  have  not  been  able  to 
ascertain;  but,  if  true,  it  partly  explains  the  compara- 
tively small  damage  caused  by  the  bombarding  fleets. 

The  average  German  naval  officer  is  an  ardent  ad- 
mirer and  student  of  the  late  Admiral  Mahan's  doc- 
trines. His  writings  are  frequently  quoted,  especially 
when  the  possibilities  of  a  British  attack  on  the  German 
North  Sea  coast  are  discussed.  On  the  strength  of  his 
conclusions  they  insist  that  no  ship  has  any  chance 
against  a  modern  fort. 

As  an  illustration  of  the  advantages  possessed  by 
coast  batteries  over  ships,  I  was  shown  a  copy  of  an 
official  report  from  the  French  Admiralty,  concerning 
certain  experiments  made  in  1914.  For  three  days  a 
number  of  French  battleships,  using  their  heaviest  guns, 
fired  on  several  shore  batteries  placed  at  different  ele- 
vations. The  result  of  the  trial  proved  that,  even  un- 
der the  most  adverse  conditions,  only  about  fifty  pet 
cent,  of  the  personnel  serving  the  shore  batteries  would 


GERMANY'S  COAST  DEFENCES         245 

have  been  injured,  while  hardly  thirty  per  cent,  of  the 
guns  could  have  been  placed  out  of  action.  "  And," 
my  informants  added,  "  the  French  have  no  armour- 
plate  that  can  compare  with  our  Gruson."  Inquiries 
as  to  why  they  did  not  use  this  kind  of  armour-plate 
to  protect  their  ships  elicited  the  information  that  it  is 
too  heavy  for  that  purpose. 

Through  my  letter  of  introduction  to  Herr  Krupp,  I 
met  Herr  Crass,  Krupp's  General  Representative  in 
Berlin.  Herr  Crass,  who  has  his  palatial  offices  in  the 
Voss  Strasse,  occupies  one  of  the  most  important  posts 
in  the  Krupp  organisation.  He  is  the  official  inter- 
mediary between  his  firm  and  the  German  War  Office. 
I  had  several  long  conversations  with  him,  and  found 
him  one  of  the  most  pleasant  and  interesting  Germans 
I  met.  Shortly  after  our  meeting  I  dropped  in  at  his 
office,  and  found  him  much  incensed  over  a  report,  pub- 
lished in  some  of  the  Allied  papers,  stating  that  a  Krupp 
gun  sold  to  the  Argentine  Government  had  burst. 

"  It  is  a  falsehood  of  the  first  order,"  he  protested. 
"  Never  in  all  the  years  that  we  have  been  building  guns 
has  there  been  a  case  of  a  burst  Krupp  cannon.  If  the 
proper  charges  of  explosives  are  used  it  is  simply  im- 
possible." 

One  of  his  chief  arguments  against  the  possibility  of 
a  burst  Krupp  gun  seemed  to  be  that  the  barrel  is  made 
of  one  solid  piece  of  "  crucible  nickel  steel."  "  Com- 
pare this  with  the  British  Woolwich-built  guns,"  he  con- 
tinued. "  The  barrels  of  these  guns  consist  of  several 
parts.  First,  there  is  the  rifling,  which  is  fitted  in  an 
inner  tube.  Over  this  comes  a  wire  covering,  consist- 
ing of  steel  sheet  ribbon  wound  round  the  inner  tube  at 
a  very  high  pressure.  Finally,  there  comes  the  outer 
tube  which  covers  the  whole.  Our  guns  of  12,  14  and 
15-inch  calibre  have  a  life  more  than  three  times  as  long 


246  BEHIND  THE  GERMAN  VEIL 

as  the  equivalent  guns  in  the  British  Navy.  These 
guns  can  deliver  close  on  two  hundred  and  thirty  rounds, 
while  British-built  guns  are  hardly  good  for  more  than 
sixty  rounds  for  the  12  and  131/2-inch  calibre,  and 
eighty  rounds  for  their  15-inch." 

The  proviso  of  "  proper  explosives  "  brought  us  to 
discuss  the  comparative  merits  of  the  powders  used  by 
Germany  and  England.  Here,  too,  Herr  Crass  claimed 
superiority  for  the  German  product.  The  British  pow- 
der, so  he  said,  contained  ingredients  which  are  very 
hard  on  the  guns,  tending  to  destroy  the  rifling.  The 
German  powder,  containing  twenty-five  per  cent,  nitro- 
glycerine (for  their  heavy  calibres),  is  supposed  to  be 
far  preferable  to  the  British  cordite  charges.  "  Their 
powder"  (meaning  the  British)  "is  in  a  large  degree 
responsible  for  the  comparatively  short  life  of  their 
big  guns.  Apart  from  the  damage  it  does  to  the  rifling, 
it  causes  cracks  and  abrasions  in  both  the  inner  and 
the  outer  tubes  long  before  the  allowed  maximum  is 
reached.  Naturally  this  causes  great  inaccuracy  of 
fire."  I  thought  of  the  "  inaccuracy  "  of  the  British 
guns  in  the  Falkland  Islands  battle,  the  Doggerbank 
affair,  and  other  occasions  when  there  was  an  oppor- 
tunity of  testing  them ;  but  I  merely  asked  why,  if  the 
British  powder  had  all  those  bad  qualities,  did  the  Brit- 
ish stick  to  it.''  Ah!  there  were  several  reasons.  In  the 
first  place,  it  seems  (according  to  my. informant)  less 
expensive  to  renew  the  guns  than  it  would  be  to  change 
all  the  British  powder  factories ;  in  the  second  place, 
the  British  powder  is  the  safest  and  keeps  best  of  any 
in  the  world ;  and,  finally,  England,  being  firstly  a 
Naval  Power,  calculates  on  quick  results  in  a  pitched 
battle.  In  other  words,  a  decision  would  be  reached 
long  before  the  big  guns  had  fired  their  maximum  num- 
ber of  rounds.     It  is  characteristic  of  every  German 


GERMANY'S  COAST  DEFENCES         247 

to-day  to  place  financial  considerations  always  nearest 
to  the  British  heart. 

I  was  treated  to  some  interesting  details  regarding 
the  efficiency  of  the  German  naval  gunner.  At  a  recent 
gun-practice  of  the  Helgoland  (a  battleship  of  23,000 
tons,  mounting  12-inch  guns),  one  of  these  guns,  firing 
a  projectile  of  981  lbs.,  struck  a  moving  target,  six 
miles  distant,  six  times  in  fifty-eight  seconds !  She  also 
delivered  six  broadsides  (eight  guns)  in  one  minute  at 
a  moving  target  some  eight  miles  off,  and  hardly  visible 
to  the  naked  e^-e.  More  than  two-thirds  (over  5,000 
lbs.)  of  each  broadside  hit  the  target.  Those  amongst 
my  readers  who  are  not  au  courant  with  the  many  ac- 
complishments of  a  12-inch  gun,  should  ask  one  of  their 
naval  friends,  and  then  they  will  learn  what  wonders 
these  German  gunners  are.  It  is  usually  understood 
that  two,  perhaps  at  the  utmost  three,  shots  a  minute 
from  a  12-inch  gun  is  the  limit.  Another  record  is  said 
to  be  held  by  this  ship.  I  was  told  that  at  a  compe- 
tition held  in  March,  1915,  she  coaled  756  tons  in  one 
hour.  But,  of  course,  Germany  is  a  surprising  coun- 
try! 

I  also  learned  of  some  marvellous  performances  of 
the  coast  battery  personnel.  I  noticed,  at  various 
points  along  the  coast,  fairly  hifrh  observation  towers, 
and  managed  to  pay  a  visit  to  one  of  them.  In  each 
of  them  are  stationed  two  naval  officers,  who,  armed 
with  powerful  telescopes  and  with  numerous  charts  and 
maps,  watch  day  after  day  for  any  enemy  vessels  that 
may  have  eluded  the  three-fold  line  of  guard-ships.  As 
soon  as  an  enemy  ship  is  discovered,  the  observing" 
officer,  by  means  of  his  chart,  ruled  into  many  squares 
and  angles,  immediately  calculates  its  position  and  the 
angle  of  fire  for  tlie  respective  batteries  he  serves.     The 


248  BEHIND  THE  GERMAN  VEIL 

result  of  the  calcalation  is  at  once  telephoned  to  the 
different  commanders  in  charge ;  and  although  the  men 
at  the  guns  are  unable  to  see  their  target,  they  open 
fire.  Gun-practices  held  with  this  system  of  indirect 
fire  showed  that  a  target  nine  miles  out  at  sea  was 
struck  seven  times  out  of  ten.  Now  we  know  —  as  they 
do  in  Germany  —  why  the  British  fleet  keeps  at  a  safe 
distance  from  these  gunnery  experts  I 


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CHAPTER  XXXII 

HELIGOLAND 

THE  subject  of  Heligoland  is  one  that  to-day  is 
very  near  to  the  heart  of  every  German,  but 
especially  of  those  who  are  in  any  way  connected  with 
the  Navy.  The  mere  mention  of  the  name  will  bring 
delight  to  his  face.  More  likely  than  not,  he'll  slap  you 
on  the  back,  and,  with  a  grin  of  satisfaction  and  a  con- 
fidential, knowing  air  —  as  if  he  were  personally  re- 
sponsible for  the  fact  that  the  island  is  German  now  — 
will  assure  you  that  "  We  certainly  scored  a  point  on 
old  England  that  time." 

The  transaction  between  the  British  and  German 
Governments,  through  which  the  latter  obtained  Heligo- 
land was  by  no  means  always  as  popular  with  the  Ger- 
mans as  it  is  to-day. 

In  1890  von  Caprivi,  four  months  after  he  had  suc- 
ceeded Bismarck,  concluded  with  Lord  Salisbury  what 
has  ever  since  been  considered  one  of  the  most  compre- 
hensive of  all  African  agreements,  viz.,  the  treaty  defin- 
ing the  spheres  of  influence  in  East  and  West  Africa 
between  Great  Britain  and  Germany.  It  included,  in 
return  for  Germany's  recognition  of  a  British  Protec- 
torate over  Zanzibar,  the  cession  of  Heligoland  to  Ger- 
many. 

Bismarck,  together  with  the  rapidly-growing  Colonial 
party,  severely  criticised  both  the  terms  and  the  prin- 
ciple of  this  treaty,  maintaining  that  it  destroyed  all 
possibility  of  a  greater  East  African  German  Empire. 
They  refused  to  accept  von  Caprivi's  contention  that 
*'  the  days  of  flag  hoisting "  were  over.     Heligoland 

249 


250  BEHIND  THE  GERMAN  VEIL 

appeared  but  a  small  compensation  for  what  they  aban- 
doned in  East  Africa.  But  times  and  sentiments  have 
changed  very  much  since  those  early  days.  Heligo- 
land has  become  the  very  apple  of  their  eye,  and  I  am 
certain  the  Germans  would  sooner  return  Alsace  and 
Lorraine  to-morrow  than  give  up  that  mile-long  piece 
of  rock.  "  Heligoland  must  and  shall  always  remain 
German  soil,"  so  everybody  in  Germany  will  assure 
you.  All  the  money  in  the  world,  I  believe,  could  not 
buy  back  Heligoland  to-day.  As  a  prominent  German 
naval  authority  expressed  himself:  "If  Heligoland 
belonged  to  England  to-day,  we  should  be  like  rats 
in  a  trap." 

Heligoland  forms,  with  Wilhelmshaven  and  Kiel,  the 
nucleus  of  the  German  coast-defence  system.  It  is  situ- 
ated about  forty  miles  from  the  mainland  and  equi- 
distant from  the  Weser  and  Elbe  mouths.  It  consists 
of  two  islands,  the  larger  about  a  mile  in  length,  with 
an  upper  and  lower  level  ("  Ober-  "  and  "  Unterland  "), 
and  the  unimportant  and  much  smaller  one  (half  a  mile 
east),  named  Sand  Island,  At  the  beginning  of  hos- 
tilities, every  inhabitant,  man,  woman  and  child,  not  in 
some  way  connected  with  the  navy  and  the  defence  of 
the  island,  was  packed  off.  Most  of  them  were  sent  to 
Hamburg,  where  I  met  several  of  them.  It  is  interest- 
ing to  note  that  several  native  Heligolanders  are  in- 
terned as  British  aliens,  yet  none  of  them  have  ever  set 
foot  in  England.  They  are  the  men  who,  after  the 
cession  in  1890,  chose  to  retain  their  British  nation- 
ality. Among  the  two  thousand  odd  inhabitants  were 
a  large  number  of  women  who  had  never  left  the  island 
since  they  were  born.  There  were  many  sad  scenes  on 
that  Monday,  August  3rd,  the  day  before  England  de- 
clared war.  Very  few  of  them  —  so  several  Heligo- 
landers told  me  personally  —  ever  expected  to  see  their 


HELIGOLAND  251 

homes  again.  They  doubt  not  for  one  moment  that, 
sooner  or  later,  the  British  will  blow  up  the  whole 
island. 

It  is  futile  to  try  to  get  anywhere  near  Heligoland. 
None  but  accredited  German  naval  ships  are  allowed 
nearer  than  about  ten  miles.  The  nearest  I  got  to 
Heligoland  (in  1915)  was  about  two  miles  —  by  air  — 
about  the  only  way,  I  think,  to  get  that  far.  From  the 
high  altitude  we  were  at,  the  little  triangular  piece  of 
land  seemed  hardly  more  than  a  large  rock.  It  was  a 
clear  day.  The  rays  of  the  sun,  thrown  against  the 
steep  reddish  cliffs,  were  reflected  in  the  water,  and 
seemed  to  form  a  kind  of  halo  along  the  southwestern 
side  of  the  island.     It  was  a  most  fascinating  sight. 

It  is  curious  that  the  only  two  occasions  when  I  have 
set  eyes  on  Heligoland  are  recorded  in  my  mind  as  a 
colour  scheme  of  a  harmonious  and  picturesque  charac- 
ter. The  first  occurred  some  sixteen  years  ago,  shortly 
after  the  opening  of  the  Kiel  Canal.  During  the  sum- 
mer months,  excursion  steamers,  making  the  round  trip 
to  Heligoland  in  one  day,  sail  several  times  a  week  from 
different  points  on  the  coast.  On  approaching  the 
island,  especially  from  the  southeastern  coast,  the  effect 
of  the  steep  red  cliffs,  hollowed  by  the  sea  into  all  kinds 
of  fantastic  figures  and  columns,  is  very  striking.  The 
Oberland  is  mostly  covered  with  meadows.  The  colour 
scheme  of  three  distinct  hues  is,  I  think,  one  of  the 
strangest  natural  formations  I  have  ever  seen.  The 
red  cliffs  are  fringed  above  by  the  grassy  slopes  of  the 
"  Oberland,"  and  below  by  the  white  sand  of  the  beaches 
of  the  "  Unterland."  On  the  boat  a  native  Heligo- 
lander,  who  was  standing  near  and  evidently  read  the 
admiration  in  my  eyes,  explained  to  me  that  those  three 
colours  represent  the  flag  of  the  island.  He  cited  and 
wrote  down  for  me  the  following  Frisian  verse: 


252  BEHIND  THE  GERMAN  VEIL 

"  Gron  is  dat  Land, 
Rood   is   de   Kant, 
Witt   is  de   Sand  — 
Dat  is  de  Flag  vun't  Halllge  Land." 

Immediately  after  taking  possession  of  the  island,  the 
Germans  proceeded  to  make  it  the  Gibraltar  of  the 
North  Sea.  Its  armaments,  defences,  positions,  etc., 
are  secrets  which  have  been  most  jealously,  and  I  am 
convinced,  most  successfully  guarded.  Although,  as  I 
said  above,  I  was  unable  to  satisfy  my  thirst  for  knowl- 
edge by  a  personal  visit,  I  managed  to  obtain  some  in- 
teresting and  first-hand  descriptions  of  the  place,  which 
is  more  than  most  "  travellers  "  and  "  students  "  have 
gained ;  and,  although  I  was  unable  to  obtain  a  photo- 
graphic copy  of  the  official  large  scale  map  of  Heligo- 
land, I  have  had  plenty  of  opportunities  of  studying  the 
lay  of  the  land. 

While  the  importance  of  Heligoland  as  a  protective 
harbour  of  refuge  for  German  warships  is,  of  course, 
slight  as  compared  to  the  safety  of  the  Kiel  Canal,  its 
value  as  a  coaling  station  and  a  submarine  and  tor- 
pedo-boat base  is  incalculable.  During  the  last  four 
or  five  years  over  30,000,000  marks  ($7,500,000)  have 
been  expended  on  the  construction  of  large  moles,  har- 
bours, sea-walls,  etc.,  in  order  to  protect  the  island 
from  the  ravages  of  the  storms,  and,  at  the  same  time, 
offer  some  shelter  to  ships.  On  the  southeastern  side 
two  moles  have  been  built,  one  of  nearly  2,000  feet,  and 
another  of  1,300  feet  in  length.  In  this  way  something 
over  seventy  acres  of  land  have  been  reclaimed.  The 
new  harbour  surface  extends  to  over  eighty  acres,  and 
is  divided  into  the  North  and  the  South  Harbours. 
The  former  is  the  smaller.  The  latter  has  a  large  num- 
ber of  short  piers  for  submarines  and  torpedo-boats. 
Their  depth  is  about  twenty-three  feet. 


HELIGOLAND  253 

The  armament  of  Heligoland  consists  of  five  batteries 
(four  guns  each),  divided  into  two  direct-fire  batteries 
of  12-inch  calibre  and  three  howitzer  batteries  with 
ordnance  of  from  11-  to  17-inch.  Owing  to  the  advan- 
tageous positions  of  these  batteries,  placed  on  the  up- 
per level  at  heights  of  from  180  to  220  feet  above  the 
sea,  they  are  able  to  fire  in  all  directions,  which  —  so 
it  is  claimed  —  excludes  any  possibility  of  an  attack 
on  the  entrances  of  the  Elbe  and  Weser  mouths,  or  the 
Kiel  Canal,  and  also  makes  a  close  blockade  of  those 
harbours  impossible.  The  plunging  fire,  which  the  ele- 
vation of  these  batteries  makes  it  possible  to  direct, 
would  prove  destructive  to  even  the  heaviest  type  of 
armour-plate.  Lord  (Charles)  Beresford  is  frequently 
quoted,  in  connection  with  Heligoland's  defences,  as 
having  said  that  no  commander  would  dare  to  expose 
his  ships  to  a  fire  of  this  kind.  Even  if,  by  some  mira- 
cle, an  enemy  ship  should  succeed  in  reaching  the  island, 
it  would  be  a  practical  impossibility  to  carry  it  by 
storm,  owing  to  the  almost  perpendicular  steepness  of 
the  cliffs. 

From  the  outside  not  a  gun  is  visible.  Every  gun  is 
protected  by  Gruson  turrets  or  cupolas,  all  built  on  the 
disappearing  principle.  The  emplacements  have  been 
cut  into  solid  rocks,  and  so  have  the  ammunition  depots 
and  bomb-proof  shelters.  Krupp  anti-aircraft  guns 
are  stationed  at  points  of  vantage,  and  it  is  claimed 
that  they  are  able  to  fire  close  on  three  miles  (15,000 
feet)  high.  Provisions  and  ammunitions  of  all  kinds 
are  stored  in  the  various  depots,  enough  to  last  a  year, 
while  an  ample  number  of  sailors,  calculated  "  for  all 
eventualities,"  as  the  official  phrase  runs,  are  garrisoned 
in  the  fortress. 

In  1913  the  5th  Artillery  Naval  Division  (four  com- 
panies), forming  part  of  the  Heligoland  garrison,  won 


254  BEHIND  THE' GERMAN  VEIL 

the  Kaiser  prize  for  having  obtained  the  highest  scores 
in  target  practice  with  heavy  coast  batteries.  Bril- 
liant results  were  also  obtained  by  so-called  "  indirect 
fire." 

The  lighthouse,  situated  near  the  southwest  corner 
of  the  island,  is  the  highest  on  the  North  Sea  coast 
{266  feet).  Its  apex,  well  over  460  feet  above  sea 
level,  serves  as  an  excellent  observation  point.  The 
lighthouse  guards  have  surrendered  their  station  to 
naval  officers.  An  elaborate  wireless  system,  one  of  the 
most  powerful  of  its  kind,  is  continually  in  touch  with 
the  other  stations  on  the  North  Sea  and  any  ships 
which  may  be  outside. 

Interesting  arguments  by  German  and  alien  naval 
authorities  are  recorded  in  certain  confidential  reports 
about  the  fortifications  and  the  general  aspects  of 
Heligoland.  It  has  been  maintained  by  some  that  the 
fortress  would  become  untenable  if  subjected  to  a  heavy 
bombardment.  They  argue  that  the  modern  H.E. 
shells  would  blow  the  sandstone  rocks  to  bits,  dislodge 
the  batteries,  and  make  them  useless.  It  is  claimed  that 
a  prolonged  fire  of  the  batteries  themselves  would  have 
serious  effects  on  their  positions.  But  against  those 
arguments  were  placed  the  reports  of  experiments  made 
by  German  experts,  in  which  it  was  stated  that  no  vital 
part  of  the  island  had  been  affected  by  many  consecu- 
tive concussions  of  even  the  heaviest  ordnance  of  the 
cliff  batteries,  nor  by  any  explosions  caused  by  direct 
fire  against  the  outside  rocks.  At  present  I  think 
Heligoland  is  only  vulnerable  by  an  air  attack.  A  fleet 
of  aeroplanes  could  do  an  immense  amount  of  damage 
on  that  strip  of  land  —  a  mile  long,  and  from  a  quarter 
to  a  third  of  a  mile  wide.  From  the  map  I  have  seen,  it 
seems  that  there  are  few  spots  in  which  a  bomb  could 
fall  without  doing  considerable  damage. 


CHAPTER  XXXIII 

PROTECTION    OF    THE    KIEL    CANAL 

A  WEEK  or  so  after  my  arrival  in  Hamburg  I 
learned  that  Admiral  von  Koester  was  to  give  a 
lecture  at  the  University  of  Kiel.  Of  course,  I  could 
not  afford  to  miss  such  an  interesting  and  instructive 
event.  Consequently,  I  persuaded  a  German  naval  ac- 
quaintance to  be  my  companion  on  a  little  voyage  of 
discovery,  which  —  incidentally,  of  course  —  would  in- 
clude a  visit  to  Kiel.  A  naval  uniform  is  a  passport 
anywhere  in  Germany,  and  my  passport  was  much  in 
need  of  both  moral  and  physical  support.  This  was 
my  first  visit  to  Kiel.  On  the  second  occasion,  when  I 
passed  through  the  Canal  (as  described  below),  being 
without  such  an  escort,  and  since  Kiel  is  an  unhealthy 
place  for  any  foreigner  in  these  days,  I  left  it  without 
delay. 

I  believe  it  would  be  simpler  for  a  soldier  to  pass  in 
khaki  through  Belgium  and  Brussels  than  for  a  spy  to 
get  within  sight  of  the  Kiel  Canal.  There  is  hardly  a 
yard  of  land  or  water  along  the  Canal  or  near  its  ap- 
proaches, that  is  not  guarded  night  and  day.  Near  the 
Canal  everything  is  "  Verboten."  You  must  not  enter 
the  zone  —  one  mile  on  either  side  of  the  Canal  —  with- 
out a  special  permit.  Even  if  you  have  a  pass,  you  are 
not  allowed  to  enter  the  zone  without  being  accom- 
panied by  a  soldier.  From  every  village  and  town 
which  lies  in  the  proximity  of  the  Canal  every  foreigner, 
whether  naturalised  or  not,  has  been  expelled.  Even 
Germans  whose  reputations  were  not  spotless  had  to 

so  too. 

255 


256  BEHIND  THE  GERMAN  VEIL 

At  the  various  bridges  —  either  railroad  or  highway 
—  the  ferries  and  every  other  kind  of  crossing,  whole 
platoons  of  soldiers  are  stationed.  Parcels  that  could 
be  carried  across  are  thoroughly  examined ;  civilians  are 
not  allowed  to  cross  the  Canal  unless  chaperoned  by  a 
soldier.  Motor-cars,  carriages,  wagons  —  in  short, 
vehicles  of  every  kind  and  description  —  must  be  es- 
corted by  a  soldier  in  order  to  reach  the  other  side. 
Everybody  must  be  in  possession  of  a  special  pass,  is? 
sued  by  the  Mayor  and  countersigned  by  two  prominent 
citizens  of  the  town  or  village  where  he  lives ;  his  busi- 
ness must  be  stated  thereon;  whether  he  enjoys  a  good 
reputation,  and  numerous  other  details.  The  pass  is 
only  valid  for  the  particular  station  of  the  Canal  for 
which  it  is  issued.  It  must  be  applied  for  at  least  a 
week  beforehand,  so  that  the  local  authorities  have 
ample  time  to  despatch  a  list  of  the  passes  issued  to  the 
Canal  authorities.  The  passenger  cannot  change  his 
route.  If  he  should  present  himself  at  any  other  sta- 
tion his  name  would  be  unknown  there  and  he  would 
be  arrested  at  once.  The  formalities  at  the  railroad 
stations  giving  access  to  the  four  railroad  bridges  are 
the  severest  of  all.  On  reaching  the  last  station  before 
the  Canal,  all  the  passengers  must  alight.  After  your 
pass  has  been  examined  and  not  found  wanting,  your 
luggage  thoroughly  overhauled,  your  pockets  searched, 
you  may  return  to  your  seat  in  the  train.  You  might 
think  that  they  would  trust  you  now ;  but,  no,  "  we 
cannot  take  any  chances."  Some  fifty  soldiers  with 
fixed  bayonets  and  loaded  rifles  enter  the  train  and  are 
posted  either  in  the  vestibules  of  the  carriages,  or  — 
as  is  usually  the  case  —  one  in  each  compartment. 
The  blinds  must  be  drawn,  and  the  doors  are  locked  on 
the  outside.     Sentries  near  the  bridges  have  stringent 


PROTECTION  OF  THE  KIEL  CANAL      257 

instructions  to  fire  without  warning  at  any  one  seen 
prowling  round.  The  anti-aircraft  guns  on  the  locks, 
bridges,  and  other  points  along  the  Canal  are  manned 
da}'  and  night. 

Everything  possible  is  done  to  discourage  unneces- 
sary travelling  in  the  Canal  zone.  "  It  is  better,"  so 
they  argue,  "  to  suspect  and  inconvenience  a  thousand 
innocent  travellers,  than  that  one  guilty  person  should 
slip  through." 

"  My  dear  sir,  do  you  think  we  are  fools .''  "  exclaimed 
a  German  officer  whom  I  chaffed  about  these  precau- 
tionary measures.  "  What  do  you  think  it  would  be 
worth  to  the  British  to  have  our  Canal  put  out  of  busi- 
ness, even  if  only  temporarily.?  Millions,  my  dear  sir, 
millions.  In  these  times,  and  certainly  as  far  as  our 
Canal  is  concerned,  we  suspect  everybody,  and  will  con- 
sider him  '  not  guilty  ' —  for  the  time  being  only  — 
when  he  has  reached  the  other  side  without  accidents  to 
the  Canal.  The  reports  from  the  different  stations  in 
the  zone  would  make  interesting  reading,  especially  for 
the  British.  We  have  caught  very  strange  fish  here, 
and  big  ones  too.  A  special  court-martial  is  continu- 
ally sitting  at  Kiel,  charged  only  with  the  investigation 
of  Canal  cases,  and  I  can  assure  you  that  justice  is 
meted  out  here,  quick  and  drastic.  Death  is  practi- 
cally the  only  verdict." 

According  to  stories  heard  in  Hamburg  and  Kiel, 
many  attempts  have  been,  and  are  still  being,  made  to 
bribe  native  Gennans.  Several  neutrals  have  tried 
their  hands  at  earning  a  quick,  but  not  an  easy  penny. 
"  Ugh !  "  said  an  officer,  whom  I  met  in  Kiel,  contemptu- 
ously, "  the  English  are  no  good  at  secret-service  work. 
Why?  Because  they  lack  the  one  great  essential  —  the 
fanatical  spirit  of  patriotism,  which  is  born  in  us,  and 


258  BEHIND  THE  GERMAN  VEIL 

is  instilled  into  us  from  the  cradle.  If  the  English  had 
a  Canal  half  as  important  to  them  as  this  is  to  us,  it 
would  have  been  wrecked  long  ago." 

I  heard  that  during  the  early  days  of  the  war  several 
Englishmen  were  caught  red-handed.  Attempts  were 
made  to  blow  up  the  two  giant  locks  at  the  Kiel  end. 
One  man  was  caught  near  one  of  the  railroad  bridges. 
He  was  disguised  as  a  workman.  His  pass  and  other 
papers  seemed  quite  in  order.  When  they  searched  him 
nothing  suspicious  was  found,  and  they  almost  let  him 
go.  But  one  of  the  officials  suddenly  had  the  bright 
idea  to  look  inside  his  dinner  pail.  And  there,  beneath 
innocent  layers  of  cheese  sandwiches  and  hard-boiled 
eggs,  they  discovered  enough  explosives  to  blow  up  half 
a  dozen  bridges. 

I  was  shown  in  Hamburg  by  a  young  and  communi- 
cative officer  (it  was  after  one  of  those  convivial  dinners 
of  the  Vaterland,  concluding  with  French  cognac  and 
"  Deutschland  iiber  Alles  ")  a  set  of  most  interesting 
photographs.  They  showed  wrecks  and  "  accidents  " 
in  the  Canal  since  the  beginning  of  the  war.  One 
Swedish  freighter,  loaded  with  lumber,  was  seen  almost 
blocking  the  channel.  As  my  friend  the  enemy  ex- 
plained, several  tugs  arrived  only  just  in  time  to  drag 
the  steamer  sufficiently  to  one  side,  so  as  not  to  obstruct 
the  water-way  entirely.  The  "  accident  "  occurred  in 
October,  1914.  What  happened  to  that  Swedish  cap- 
tain and  his  crew  I  could  not  ascertain,  but  I  was  as- 
sured, with  an  ominous  wink  of  the  eye,  that  that  skip- 
per would  never  pass  through  the  Canal  again. 


CHAPTER  XXXIV 

FROM    EMDEN    TO    WILHELMSHAVEN 

AT  the  outbreak  of  hostilities  the  following  procla- 
mation concerning  the  operation  of  the  Kiel  Canal 
in  time  of  war  was  issued  by  the  German  Government: 

"  The  war  operations  of  the  Kaiser  Wilhelm  Canal 
have  begun.  The  Canal  zone  is  closed  at  present  for 
merchant  vessels.  Exceptions  thereto  require  in  every 
instance  the  permission  of  the  Chief  of  the  Naval  Sta- 
tion of  the  Baltic  Sea  at  Kiel." 

The  "  exceptions  "  are  practically  confined  to  such 
neutral  ships  as  carry  provisions  for  the  Army  or  Navy, 
or  are  supplying  Germany  with  foodstuffs.  But  in  all 
cases  the  captains  of  these  neutral  ships  must  be  per- 
sonally known  to  the  German  authorities,  and  a  large 
bond  must  be  put  up  for  them  either  by  their  employers 
or  by  themselves.  Until  the  end  of  1915  only  Dutch, 
Danish,  Swedish  or  Norwegian  steamers  had  obtained 
permits  to  pass  through  the  Canal.  From  what  I  have 
seen  of  the  inconveniences,  the  trouble,  the  red  tape, 
that  the  Captains  have  to  put  up  with  every  time  they 
make  the  trip  to  or  from  Germany,  I  can  assure  you 
that,  whatever  their  emoluments  may  be,  they  earn 
every  penny  of  them. 

With  great  difficulty  I  managed  to  get  a  passage  on 
one  of  these  neutral  steamers.  To  all  intents  and  pur- 
poses my  nationality  was  the  same  as  that  of  the  vessel 
on  which  I  sailed.  I  speak  German  quite  fluently, 
which  was,  of  course,  of  great  additional  assistance.  I 
joined  the  little  600-ton  steamer  at  Emden,  Germany's 
most  western  port.     We  proceeded  on  the  inside  —  i.e., 

259 


^60  BEHIND  THE  GERMAN  VEIL 

through  the  Ems-Jade  Canal,  to  Wilhehnshaven,  and 
thence  by  Cuxhaven  through  the  Kiel  Canal  to  Kiel. 
Although  the  actual  distance  we  travelled  is  well  under 
two  hundred  miles,  it  took  us  the  best  part  of  five  days. 
It  was  not  what  you  might  call  a  joy  ride,  but,  never- 
theless, I  would  not  have  missed  it  for  a  great  deal,  for 
I  learned  more  about  the  German  fleet  in  those  five  days 
than  I  had  in  all  the  weeks  I  spent  in  Germany. 

Through  the  Ems-Jade  Canal,  bordered  on  both  sides 
by  flat,  marshy  country,  the  trip  was  uneventful;  but 
when  we  got  within  sight  of  Wilhelmshaven,  the  fun 
began.  About  three  miles  from  our  day's  destination 
an  officer  and  eight  sailors  came  on  board,  and,  after 
having  carefully  examined  our  ship's  papers,  proceeded 
on  a  search  of  ship  and  crew  as  systematic  and 
thorough  as  I  have  ever  seen.  But  then,  of  course,  I 
had  never  before  attempted  to  enter  Germany's  most 
important  naval  base.  It  is  quite  true  that  she  takes 
no  chances  with  her  fleet.  The  search,  checking  of 
papers,  reports,  messages  to  Wilhelmshaven,  and  nu- 
merous other  formalities,  took  the  better  part  of  four 
hours.  When  finally  our  permits  arrived,  four  sailors 
and  a  petty  officer  came  on  board,  and  under  their 
guidance  we  finished  the  three  miles  that  separated  us 
from  the  famous  naval  base.  Through  a  system  of 
locks,  we  reached  the  "  Coal  Harbour,"  which  is  part  of 
the  New  Harbour  of  Wilhelmshaven.  By  devious 
methods  and  devices  I  had  been  able  to  time  our  arrival 
so  that  it  would  be  too  late  to  go  out  into  the  bay  that 
same  afternoon.  We  wero  told  to  make  fast  and  pre- 
pare to  stay  the  night.  1'hat  was  exactly  what  I  had 
schemed  for. 

Through  the  courtesy  of  one  of  the  harbour  officials 
I  was  enabled  to  send  a  message  to  a  naval  surgeon, 
whom  I  had  known  in  New  York,  and  to  whom  I  had 


FROM  EMDEN  TO  WILHELMSHAVEN      261 

been  able  to  render  a  not  inconsiderable  service.  The 
doctor  proved  a  friend  in  need,  and,  to  begin  with,  in- 
vited me  to  dinner  at  the  "  Casino  "  ("  Officers'  Mess  "), 
situated  in  the  park  a  few  hundred  yards  from  the  Im- 
perial Docks.  I  was  made  most  welcome  by  some  sixty- 
odd  naval  officers.  Among  those  Avhom  I  met  I  recall 
Grand-Admiral  von  Koester,  Rear-Admiral  Gadke,  Ad- 
miral von  Ingenohl,  Rear-Admiral  Hipper,  and  many 
others.  It  was  on  this  occasion,  too,  that  I  made  the 
acquaintance  of  the  notorious  Captain-Lieutenant 
Hersing,  the  (then  embryo)  "  Lusitania  Hero,"  I  had 
a  talk  with  him  on  submarine  matters,  to  which  I  shall 
return  later. 

On  entering  the  "  Casino,"  I  was  at  once  struck  by 
the  large  number  of  draAvings,  paintings  and  carica- 
tures, depicting  the  Navy  and  its  work,  which  almost 
covered  the  walls  in  every  room  and  hall.  Most  of  the 
caricatures,  of  course,  played  on  England.  Some  of 
them  were  amusing.  There  was  a  picture  of  two 
mermen  at  the  bottom  of  the  sea,  enjoying  the  many 
good  things  the  Emden  is  throwing  them,  which  is  a 
very  popular  poster.  A  large  copy  of  it,  set  in  a  mag- 
nificent frame  of  mahogany  and  old  gold,  hangs  in  the 
Casino,  between  the  portraits  of  the  Kaiser  and  the 
Kaiserin.  It  is  surrounded  by  photographs  of  Captain 
Miiller,  Captain  Miicke  (Avho  with  a  remnant  of  the 
crew  escaped  into  Turkey),  and  other  officers  of  the 
Emden. 

Indeed,  I  shall  long  remember  that  dinner  at  the 
officers'  mess  in  Wilhelmshaven ;  but  if  I  could  give  a 
full  shorthand  report  of  the  conversations  I  listened  to 
that  evening,  I  fear  you  would  think  I  had  dined  in  a 
lunatic  asylum  instead  of  an  officers'  mess.  One  or  two 
examples  will  suffice. 

The  talk  was  all  "  shop  "  and  war,  of  course.     That 


262  BEHIND  THE  GERMAN  VEIL 

same  evening  a  number  of  airmen  had  returned  from 
"  active  service  on  the  North  Sea,"  and  the  conversa- 
tion drifted  into  the  subject  of  "  Aircraft  in  relation  to 
the  invasion  of  England."  It  seems  that  the  idea  of 
invading  England  with  the  assistance  of  the  Navy  has 
for  the  present  been  shelved.  The  North  Sea.''  Ah, 
indeed,  it  was  a  great  protection,  a  formidable  obstacle ; 
but,  sir,  remember  the  old  axiom  about  a  chain  being 
only  as  strong  as  its  weakest  link.  So  with  the  North 
Sea.  It  is  only  as  wide  as  its  narrowest  point  —  i.e., 
twenty-five  miles.  That  was  the  great  principle  to  keep 
always  before  one's  mind,  because  in  that  figure  Eng- 
land's future  doom  lay  sealed !  Calais,  not  Egypt  any 
more,  was  England's  throat,  the  key  to  British  world- 
power.  Germany's  motto  was  no  longer  "  Our  future 
lies  on  the  water,"  but  should  read  henceforth,  "  On  the 
water  —  for  peace ;  under  the  water  and  in  the  air  — 
for  war."  What  could  prevent  Germany,  with  its  mar- 
vellous industrial  developments,  wonderful  inventions, 
from  building,  say,  100,000  aeroplanes.''  After  Ger- 
many had  once  taken  firm  hold  of  Calais,  an  army  of 
200,000  men  could  be  thrown  into  England  within  less 
than  half  an  hour,  by  aeroplane ! 

Of  course,  the  invasion  would  be  carried  out  during 
the  night.  They  had  only  figured  on  two  men  to  each 
aeroplane;  but,  considering  the  negligible  distance, 
which  would  exclude  the  necessity  of  carrying  any  sur- 
plus gasoline,  the  carrying  capacity  of  the  machine 
might  easily  be  doubled.     The  Landing? 

"  Ha !  my  friend,  you  may  be  certain  that  Germany, 
in  an  undertaking  of  this  kind,  would  not  risk  failure 
in  overlooking  the  smaller  details.  When  the  time 
comes  there  will  be  plenty  of  friends,  in  some  disguise  or 
other,  '  British  subjects,'  some  born,  others  naturalised, 
who  will  light  the  way  for  us.     Burning  houses,  electri- 


FROM  EMDEN  TO  WILHELMSHAVEN      263 

cal  appliances,  searchlights,  rockets,  etc.,  will  serve. 
Trust  the  German  thoroughness  to  be  prepared  for  all 
emergencies  when  '  The  Day  '  has  arrived.  Already  to- 
day the  fear  of  invasion  causes  periodical  panics  in 
England.  But  it  is  most  remarkable,  even  for  the 
short-sighted  British,  that  they  never  realised  until  the 
present  war,  and  then  only  in  a  limited  degree,  the 
vital  importance,  nay,  the  deadly  menace,  aviation  is 
to  their  country.  From  the  time  the  air  was  conquered 
England  ceased  to  be  an  island.  And  they  refused  to 
listen  to  the  brothers  Wright,  who  gave  them  their 
first  chance!     British  stupidity,  British  insularity." 

The  next  subject  which  was  discussed,  and,  of  course, 
settled,  was  the  peace  terms.  Europe  was  cut  up  and 
the  pieces  handed  round  like  a  birthday  cake.  "  Every 
country  that  has  joined  us  will  be  amply  compensated. 
Those  who  have  gone  against  us  —  well,  God  help 
them."  The  division  of  Europe  will  be  about  as  fol- 
lows : 

"  Germany  will  take  the  Baltic  provinces,  including 
Petersburg  and  the  whole  of  Poland.  Austria  will  re- 
ceive the  whole  south  of  Russia,  including  KiefF  and 
Odessa ;  Turkey,  the  whole  Caucasus,  including  the 
Department  of  Saratow.  The  Russians  must  be  sepa- 
rated not  only  from  the  Baltic,  but  from  the  Black  and 
Caspian  Seas  as  well.  Sweden  gets  Finland.  Serbia, 
of  course,  will  go  to  Austria.  Egypt  will  be  returned 
to  Turkey.  If  Roumania  intervenes  in  time  on  the 
right  side,  she  will  get  Bessarabia  and  some  minor 
territories." 

"  The  embarras  des  richesses  of  colonies  will,  when 
the  spoils  come  to  be  divided,  actually  become  a  prob- 
lem. So  far  as  India  and  Egypt  are  concerned,  our 
only  wish  to-day  is  to  help  these  nations  to  liberate 
themselves  from  the  British  yoke.     To  Algiers,  Tunis 


264  BEHIND  THE  GERMAN  VEIL 

and  Morocco  we  would  also  restore  their  autonomy. 
With  Belgium,  we,  of  course,  take  possession  of  the 
Congo  State.  The  interests  of  France  in  Morocco 
will  cease  at  once,  since  she  has  used  its  natives  to  fight 
against  us.  Turkey  will  occupy  the  Suez  Canal.  The 
shares  of  that  company  owned  at  present  by  England 
will  be  declared  null  and  void. 

"  The  economical  conditions  under  which  the  an- 
nexed territories  will  be  incorporated  in  the  German 
Empire  may  be  of  various  kinds ;  but  one  fundamental 
principle  should  never  be  lost  sight  of,  viz.,  that  elec- 
toral rights  —  i.e.,  the  right  to  elect  members  for  the 
Reichstag  —  remains  a  prerogative  of  the  Germans 
living  within  the  old  boundaries  of  the  Empire.  The 
natives  of  Poland  will  have  their  own  Parliament  in 
Warsaw ;  those  of  the  Baltic  provinces,  in  Petersburg. 
The  Belgians,  of  course,  may  retain  their  Parliament  in 
Brussels,  while  for  the  annexed  provinces  of  France  — 
Calais,  Rheims,  Belfort,  etc. —  a  separate  Diet  could 
be  established.  Poland  and  Belgium  might  even  re- 
main kingdoms  with  Prussian  princes  on  the  throne. 

"  But  though  the  conquered  territories  will  have  no 
voice  in  the  Imperial  legislation,  they  will,  of  course, 
have  to  submit  to  conscription.  The  young  Pole  from 
Warsaw  will  serve  his  three  years  in  Hanover,  Diis- 
seldorf,  or  Cologne.  The  Frenchman  from  Calais  or 
Rheims  will  be  sent  to  Breslau  or  Posen.  The  Russians 
of  the  Baltic  provinces,  like  the  young  conscripts  from 
Belgium,  will  enjoy  their  military  training  in  Bavaria 
or  Saxony.  But  the  great  fortresses,  such  as  Calais, 
Belfort,  Warsaw,  or  Riga,  will  be  garrisoned  by  none 
save  the  old  Prussian  regiments." 

About  their  fleet  —  why  did  it  not  come  out  and  fight 
the  British.^     Why  didn't  the  British  fleet  come  and 


FROM  EMDEN  TO  WILHELMSHAVEN      265 

*'  dig  them  out,"  as  Churchill  threatened  to  do  ?  Yes, 
they  would  come  out  and  fight,  but  they  would  choose 
their  own  time  —  not  when  the  British  wanted  them  to. 
"  So  far,  our  fleet  has  paid  us  very  well,  and  will  pay 
us  in  future.  This  war  is  not  going  to  be  over  for 
some  time."  Exorbitant  naval  taxes .''  "  Why,  my 
friend,  take  a  current  copy  of  our  '  Statisches  Jahr- 
buch,'  and  find  out  how  much  the  German  nation  is 
paying  for  what  our  enemies  describe  as  our  '  luxury.' 
About  seven  marks  a  year  per  capita  is  the  average 
for  the  last  four  years.  That  amounts  to  a  third  of 
what  England  demands  of  her  subjects." 

These  are  a  few  examples  of  their  conversation,  and 
by  no  means  the  most  extravagant.  But  they  talked 
well,  and  I  think  they  quite  believed  what  they  said. 
I  knew  how  utterly  useless  it  would  be  to  try  to  argue 
with  them.  Besides,  I  wanted  to  have  a  look  at  the 
harbour  and  dockj^ards  next  morning,  so  I  deemed 
discretion  the  better  part  of  valour.  One  is  not  in 
Wilhelmshaven  every  day,  in  these  times ! 

Captain-Lieutenant  Hersing,  whom  I  mentioned 
above,  had  not  reached  his  most  dazzling  height  of 
fame  when  I  met  him.  It  was  in  the  -pie-Lusitania 
days.  Still,  he  had  already  earned  the  Iron  Cross, 
second  and  first  class.  With  the  U  21,  one  of  the 
smaller  submarines,  he  had  sunk  what  he  described  as 
the  British  "  cruiser,"  Pathfinder.  Besides,  he  had 
been  active  for  a  short  spell  in  the  Irish  Sea,  where 
he  sank  the  Bencruachan  and  one  or  two  other  ships. 
The  names  of  all  his  victims  —  I  refer  to  the  ships  — 
were  neatly  engraved  on  a  silver  cigarette-case  which 
he  showed  me,  with  the  dates  behind  and  a  facsimile 
small  Iron  Cross  in  the  corner.  After  sinking  the 
Lusitania,  he  was  the  most  popular  naval  officer  in 
Germany.     His  friends  declared  that  he  received  more 


266  BEHIND  THE  GERMAN  VEIL 

love-letters,  more  proposals,  love-parcels,  flowers  and 
photographs,  than  the  most  popular  actor  or  actress 
ever  dreamt  of.  Hersing  told  me  that  there  was  but 
one  serious  risk  in  his  job;  that  was  the  British  de- 
stroyers : 

"  Those  '  beasts  of  prey  '  are  on  you  before  you  can 
say  '  knife ' !  They  patrol  usually  in  sixes  or  twelves, 
and  it  has  become  essential  for  us  to  show  ourselves  as 
little  as  possible  on  the  surface.  Up  till  now  we  have 
carried  out  this  campaign  in  as  much  of  a  sporting 
spirit  as  possible ;  but  since  several  of  our  U  boats  have 
been  lost,  as  a  result  of  their  too  lenient  treatment  of 
the  enemy,  that  is  going  to  be  stopped.  It's  all  very 
well  to  try  to  be  humane,  even  in  war-time,  but  not  at 
the  price  of  suicide.  The  recent  destruction  of  the  U  8 
and  the  U  12  are  cases  in  point.  Our  instructions 
now  are,  that  on  no  account  must  we  risk  the  safety  of 
our  boat,  to  say  nothing  of  our  own  necks,  for  the 
sake  of  saving  the  crews  of  captured  ships.  Was  it 
not  their  own  naval  chief.  Lord  Fisher,  who  said: 
*  Moderation  in  war  is  nonsense'.?  Take  the  case  of 
Captain  Hansen"  (commander  of  the  U  16).  "He 
refrained  from  torpedoing  a  French  steamer  off  the 
harbour  of  Cherbourg  because  he  noticed  several  women 
and  children  on  board,  and  afterwards  escaped,  by  the 
breadth  of  a  hair,  being  rammed  by  that  very  vessel. 
Oh,  we  Germans  are  too  easy,  too  sentimental,  too 
tender-hearted,  and  our  enemies  take  advantage  of  that 
weakness  every  time." 

After  dinner  a  naval  officer  came  in,  limping  on  a 
stick.  He  was  formally  presented  to  me  as  one  of 
the  survivors  of  the  Mainz,  which  was  sunk  in  the 
North  Sea  early  in  the  war.  His  experiences  had  been 
quite  interesting,  so  I  was  told.  When  he  regained 
consciousness  he  thought,   of   course,   that  he  was   a 


FROM  EMDEN  TO  WILHELMSHAVEN      267 

prisoner  in  England.  So  he  racked  his  brain  for  every 
possible  vile  English  curse-word  he  could  think  of  to 
throw  at  his  attendants.  His  English  vocabulary  was 
said  to  be  extensive,  and  he  rattled  the  unflattering 
epithets  off  one  after  another.  Strange  to  say,  instead 
of  becoming  furious,  his  attendants  all  began  to  laugh, 
and  they  "laughed  in  German."  (Englishmen  cannot 
really  laugh  properly,  they  only  grin,  on  account  of 
their  eternal  pipe!)  Oh,  what  joy,  when  he  discovered 
that  he  was  not  in  the  enemies'  hands,  but  at  home,  in  the 
dear  old  Vaterland!  He  was  so  overcome  that  he 
swooned  again.  But  his  cup  of  happiness  was  mixed 
with  many  bitter  tears  at  the  thought  of  his  ship,  the 
poor  old  Mainz,  his  "  Iron  Home,"  now  at  the  bottom 
of  the  North  Sea !  The  tears  almost  welled  into  his 
eyes  when  he  retold  the  story  of  this  glorious  escape. 

Then  there  was  the  commander  of  the  old  torpedo- 
boat  S  5.  He,  too,  was  famous.  Had  not  his  nutshell 
of  six  hundred  tons  earned,  in  the  Doggerbank  affair, 
the  great  distinction  of  having  drawn  the  fire  of  the 
largest  calibre  British  guns,  while  trying  to  save  some 
of  the  crew  of  the  sinking  Blilcher?  Oh,  it  was  not 
really  as  difficult  as  one  would  think,  to  avoid  those 
big  fellows.  You  see,  when  you  saw  the  water  spout 
up  on  your  left,  why  you  simply  turned  off  to  the 
right,  and  when  you  heard  or  saw  the  shell  strike  the 
water  on  your  right,  well,  you  merely  steered  to  port. 
He,  too,  was  one  of  the  official  eye-witnesses  of  the 
sinking  of  the  Tiger! 

Captain  Hansen,  who  was  also  present  on  this  occa- 
sion, had  been  living  in  England  till  a  few  days  before 
the  outbreak  of  the  war.  He  related  a  brilliant  bit  of 
German  humour.  While  basking  in  the  sun,  on  the 
deck  of  his  large  new  submarine,  somewhere  off  the 
coast  of  England,  one  of  his  men  appeared  from  the 


268  BEHIND  THE  GERMAN  VEIL 

conning-tower,  carrying  a  large  box.  He  was  about  to 
chuck  the  thing  overboard,  when  he  (the  Commander) 
stopped  him,  and  asked  what  was  in  the  box.  "  Just 
a  '  Liebesgabe '  (Love-gift),  Herr  Capitan."  "Now 
what  do  you  think  was  in  that  box,  and  to  whom  do 
you  imagine  it  was  addressed?  "  Hansen  asked  his 
audience.  After  everybody  had  "  given  it  up,"  he  con- 
tinued slowly :  "  The  box  contained  the  old  bones  of 
the  previous  day's  meals,  and  it  was  addressed  to  '  Herr 
Edward  Grey,  London.'  "  If  universal  hilarity  and 
applause  is  any  criterion,  the  joke  was  hugely  appre- 
ciated by  the  captain's  colleagues. 

A  few  days  previous  to  my  visit  the  Liitzow,  one 
of  the  new  28,000-ton  super-Dreadnoughts  (sunk  on 
May  31st)  had  been  completed  and  commissioned.  I 
was  told  that  the  eight  original  12-inch  guns  had  been 
supplanted  by  ordnance  of  15-inch  calibre.  Each  pro- 
jectile of  these  guns  is  five  feet  high  and  weighs  over 
1,600  lbs.  Their  range  is  supposed  to  be  twenty-two 
miles.  At  point-blank  range  they  can  pierce  a  steel 
armour-plate  four  feet  thick.  It  is  claimed  that  no 
gun  in  the  British  navy  is  capable  of  such  a  feat. 

No  wonder  that  my  brain  was  in  a  whirl  when  I  left 
the  Casino !  It  certainly  had  been  a  strenuous  eve- 
ning. Nevertheless,  I  spoke  the  truth  when,  on  taking 
leave  of  my  hosts,  I  assured  them  that  I  had  spent  a 
most   interesting,   entertaining   and  instructive  soiree. 


CHAPTER  XXXV 

WILHELMSHAVEN 

WE  walked  back  from  the  Casino  to  the  Coal 
Harbour.  Although  it  was  after  midnight,  the 
place  was  bristling  with  activitj'.  Everything  was 
prodigiously  lighted  up,  and  from  the  imperial  ship- 
building yard  close  b}'^  came  the  sounds  of  hammering, 
mixed  with  a  confused  din  of  voices,  steam-engines,  and 
the  murmurings  of  the  sea.  The  air  was  alive,  charged 
with  electricit3\  You  felt  that  here  you  were  at  the 
heart  of  things,  listening  to  the  pulse-beat  of  a  stupen- 
dous machine,  at  the  seat  of  history  in  the  making. 

It  is  perhaps  not  generally  known  that  the  territory 
of  Wilhelmshaven  is  part  of  the  Grand  Duchy  of  Olden- 
burg. In  1853,  when  Prussia  laid  the  foundations  of 
what  is  now  the  German  Navy,  she  bought  about  four 
square  miles  from  the  Grand  Duke.  The  construction 
of  the  harbour  works  was  not  begun  until  1855,  and  was 
completed  in  1869.  Seven  years  after  that,  in  1876, 
the  last  German  ship  was  launched  from  a  foreign  yard. 
Henceforth  Germany  was  going  to  be  her  own  builder. 

Many  improvements  and  additions  have  been  made 
since  those  early  days.  Wilhelmshaven  now  contains 
five  distinct  harbours  and  basins,  connected  with  each 
other  by  a  system  of  locks  and  canals.  The  "  Build- 
ing "  harbour,  surrounded  by  the  Imperial  Dockyards, 
measures  about  1,300  by  1,100  feet.  It  contains  seven 
dry-docks  and  four  slips  (not,  as  I  have  seen  quoted  in 
last  year's  British  reference  books,  four  dry-docks  and 
two  slips).  The  dry-docks  vary  in  length  from  380  to 
620  feet  —  i.e.,  long  enough  for  the  largest  battleships. 

269 


270  BEHIND  THE  GERMAN  VEIL 

The  recently  completed  "  Ausriistungshafen  "  borders 
on  the  Imperial  Dockyards.  It  is  well  over  3,000  feet 
in  length  and  over  600  feet  wide.  As  the  name  indi- 
cates, it  is  here  that  the  ships  are  fitted  out.  When  my 
friend  and  I  walked  round  this  place,  I  found  it  the 
most  interesting  part  of  all.  This  harbour  is  sur- 
rounded by  warehouses,  in  which  everything  that  is 
needed  on  a  ship  is  stored  up  in  large  quantities.  I 
passed  through  building  after  building  filled  with 
clothes,  foodstufl^s,  machinery,  spare  guns,  rifles,  Davis 
torpedoes  costing  $2500  apiece,  compasses,  field-glasses, 
etc.  There  Avere  also  buildings  containing  spare  parts, 
several  of  each  kind,  for  every  ship  of  the  North  Sea 
Division.  They  were  arranged  in  compartments,  each 
of  them  labelled  with  the  name  of  the  ship  to  which  it 
belonged.  There  was  a  thoroughness,  a  system  about 
it,  which  was  nothing  short  of  marvellous. 

The  three  entrances  to  Wilhelmshaven,  with  their 
large  locks,  are  protected  by  long,  massive  moles.  En- 
trance No.  3  —  the  northern  and  most  recent  one  — 
consists  of  two  large  locks,  which  in  case  of  necessity 
can  serve  as  dry-docks.  The  whole  place  is  one  vast 
complex  of  dry-docks,  machine  shops,  boiler  factories, 
iron  foundries,  etc.  The  yard  is  surrounded  on  the 
land  side  by  a  huge  stone  wall,  with  entrances  only 
through  fourteen  strong  iron  gates.  On  the  water  side 
it  is  protected  by  earthen  ramparts  eighteen  to  twenty 
feet  high,  strengthened  at  regular  intervals  by  gun 
embrasures,  armed  Avith  heavy  calibre  ordnance.  Fi- 
nally, the  whole  is  surrounded  by  a  ring  of  outer* 
forts  of  modern  construction  (see  map).  A  railroad 
line  seems  to  touch  almost  every  point,  every  dock, 
every  warehouse.  Everywhere  I  saw  huge  cranes,  most 
of  them  of  sufficient  power  to  lift  a  battleship's  turret, 
or  one  of  the  new  15-inch  guns,  or  a  pinnace,  as  easily 


WILHELMSHAVEN  271 

as  if  it  were  a  bale  of  cotton.  Northwest  of  the  parade 
grounds  are  two  enormous  Zeppehn  sheds,  each  with 
room  for  two  Zeppehns.  One  of  the  buildings  is  of  a 
movable  type.  Its  framework  is  built  entirely  of  steel 
and  iron,  and  is  supported  by  four  large  trucks,  mov- 
ing on  a  circular  railroad,  which  enables  the  airship 
to  start  in  any  direction.  Electric  motors,  attached 
to  the  trucks,  supply  the  motive  power. 

The  location  of  the  Ammunition  Magazines  greatly 
surprised  me.  Though  they  were  placed  well  back 
from  every  other  building,  they  were  surrounded  by 
conspicuous  landmarks.  In  the  first  place,  the  peculiar 
shape  of  the  Fitting-Out  Harbour  makes  it  easy  to 
locate  it.  The  magazines  are  immediately  north  of 
this  basin.  The  barracks  are  on  the  south  side.  Im- 
mediately west  are  the  Zeppelin  sheds,  and  hardly  an 
eiglith  of  a  mile  north  stands  the  Naval  Observatory. 
But  most  surprising  of  all  is  the  arrangement  of  the 
railroad  tracks.  They  go  as  far  as  the  magazines, 
and  there  make  a  loop  through  the  very  centre  of  the 
buildings.  What  a  place  to  bomb!  It  seems  surpris- 
ing that  no  air  attacks  have  been  made  on  Wilhelms- 
haven.  Any  one,  after  having  studied  the  map  of  the 
station  for  half  an  hour,  could  hardly  miss  those 
arsenals.  But  I  was  told  that  the  Krupp  anti-aircraft 
guns,  placed  at  all  important  points  along  the  coast, 
are  so  formidable  that  an  air  attack  is  a  practical 
impossibility. 

In  the  Fitting-Out  Harbour  we  saw  several  battle- 
ships of  the  Kaiser  class,  and  a  number  of  protected 
cruisers.  The  Prinz  Alhrecht,  Bismarck  and  Seydlitz 
I  noticed  amongst  them.  The  yards  include  six  float- 
ing docks,  two  of  them  of  40,000  tons.  The  only  rea- 
son, I  was  told,  why  Germany  has  hitherto  taken  three 
years  to  build  its  large  ships  is  because  the  costs  have 


272  BEHIND  THE  GERMAN  VEIL 

been  divided  over  that  period,  while  in  England  they  are 
distributed  over  only  two.  My  doctor  friend  assured 
me,  and  I  am  inclined  to  believe  him,  that  Germany  can 
to-day  complete  the  largest  battleships  within  two 
years. 

My  walk  round  Wilhelmshaven  did  not  make  me  feel 
that  I  was  attending  the  last  convulsions  of  an  empire. 
Work,  Will  and  Efficiency  seemed  to  be  in  the  very  air, 
staring,  shouting  at  you  at  every  turn.  Though  the 
army  is  mobilised  up  to  the  last  "  Landsturra  "  man, 
and  though  boys  of  fourteen-  and  fifteen  are  already 
being  drilled,  Germany  has  not  taken  a  single  workman 
away  from  her  ship-building  yards.  I  have  seen  and 
copied  the  authentic  figures,  stating  the  number  of  men 
employed  at  the  various  Government  and  private  yards. 
They  total  over  33,000  at  the  three  Government  yards 
at  Wilhelmshaven,  Kiel  and  Danzig,  and  over  57,000 
at  the  different  private  yards  in  Kiel,  Hamburg,  Dan- 
zig and  Bremen.  That  is  over  90,000  men;  and  the 
yards  are  running  twenty-four  hours  a  day.  Germany 
is  making  a  hard  and  desperate  bid  for  recognition  of 
her  fleet.  If  the  fighting  qualities  of  the  latter  are 
as  great,  indeed  anywhere  near  as  perfect,  as  the  organ- 
isation of  her  great  naval  base,  it  will  prove  a  for- 
midable opponent.  Grand-Admiral  von  Koester's  fa- 
vourite advice  to  his  subordinates  is :  "  Remember  the 
day  has  twenty-four  hours,  and  if  you  will  find  that 
is  not  enough  —  well,  then,  take  part  of  the  night  as 
well." 


CHAPTER  XXXVI 

WILHELMSHAVEN    TO    CUXHAVEN 

BY  the  time  I  returned  on  board  the  little  steamer, 
a  few  more  documents  had  been  added  to  an  al- 
ready voluminous  parcel  of  red,  green,  blue,  yellow  and 
white  sheets.  All  had  to  be  stamped  and  signed  and 
sworn  to;  and  about  noon  we  not  only  had  permission, 
but  strict  orders  as  well,  to  "  clear  out."  Passing 
underneath  the  new  Kaiser  Wilhelm  bridge,  we  reached 
the  main  part  of  the  New  Harbour.  Thence,  through 
the  southern  and  westernmost  exit  (No.  1),  we  ulti- 
mately reached  Jade  Bay.  On  leaving  the  last  lock 
we  shipped  one  of  the  Weser  district  pilots,  who  was 
to  see  us  as  far  as  Wangeroog,  and  not  only  steer  us 
through  the  narrow  winding  channels  between  the  sand- 
banks, but  through  many  devious  zig-zag  paths  of  the 
mine-fields  as  well.  As  we  passed  the  main  entrance 
to  Wilhelmshaven  the  U  11  came  in.  She  was  greeted 
by  hurrahs  and  the  sirens  of  ships  close  by,  so  I  con- 
cluded that  the  crew  had  covered  themselves  with  some 
farther  "  glory." 

In  thoroughness  the  Germans  can  give  any  other 
nation  twelve  months'  start,  and  still  easily  overtake  it 
in  the  next  two.  I  don't  think  that  an  English  salmon 
of  any  self-respecting  weight  would  succeed  in  slipping 
through  the  sentinels  guarding  the  entrances  to  the 
Jade,  Weser  and  Elbe  mouths.  We  had  hardly  been 
out  in  the  bay  half  an  hour,  when  a  patrol  boat  came 
alongside.  "  Your  papers,  if  you  please,"  demanded 
a  very  grimy,  but  important-looking  young  naval  offi- 
cer.    "  Every  hand  on  deck,  if  you  please,"  was  the 

273 


«74  BEHIND  THE  GERMAN  VEIL 

next  order.  Every  one  of  us  was  thoroughly  examined, 
scrutinised,  and  asked  whether  he  spoke  EngHsh, 
whether  he  had  ever  served  in  any  army  or  navy,  and 
which,  whether  he  had  any  relations  in  England,  in 
France,  in  Belgium,  in  Italy.  The  officer  must  have 
liked  our  society,  for  he  stayed  and  stayed,  and  finally 
decided  to  see  us  safely  out.  His  old-fashioned  tor- 
pedo-boat was  to  follow.  Slowly  we  wound  our  way 
down  Jade  Bay,  half  a  dozen  signal  pennants  flowing 
from  our  mainmast.  Wherever  one  looked  one  could 
not  evade  the  watching  eyes  of  the  coast  batteries,  the 
muzzles  of  which  seemed  to  warn  you  threateningly  to 
"  behave  yourself."  About  two  o'clock  we  reached  the 
Schillighorn  Lighthouse,  or  what  used  to  be  there,  but 
is  no  longer. 

If  we  thought  we  should  have  clear  sailing  now,  we 
were  deceived.  Another  torpedo-boat,  of  less  prehis- 
toric design,  came  flying  towards  us.  Our  guest  —  or 
was  he  our  host  ?  —  became  all  in  a  flutter,  like  a 
debutante  at  her  first  presentation.  Soon  another  ofl5- 
cer,  with  a  little  more  gold  braid  round  his  cuffs,  came 
to  pay  his  respects.  Then  followed  a  heel-clicking  on 
the  part  of  our  first  visitor,  and  a  quick-fire  of  German, 
which  I  suppose  was  a  report,  but  which  sounded  more 
like  ten  lines  of  typewritten  matter  with  the  punctua- 
tion and  the  spacing  between  the  words  left  out.  I 
pride  myself  on  a  thorough  knowledge  of  the  German 
language,  but  may  I  be  hanged  if  I  could  make  out 
more  than  the  "  Melde  gehorsamst  "  ("Report  most 
obediently").  The  superior  grunted  something  about 
going  to  see  for  himself.  He  did.  The  whole  per- 
formance —  search,  examination  of  crew,  cross-ques- 
tioning, and  thought  X-raying  —  started  over  again. 
It  looked  as  if  we  were  going  to  spend  another  night 
in  Jade  Bay. 


WILHELMSHAVEN  TO  CUXHAVEN      275 

We  were  eventually  allowed  to  proceed,  and  got  as 
far  as  Wangeroog  that  day  (it  was  then  about  four), 
having  completed,  since  11  a.  m.  that  morning,  about 
twenty-eight  miles.  Needless  to  say,  we  could  not  be 
trusted  in  the  dark,  certainly  not  near  such  an  impor-' 
tant  station  as  Wangeroog.  We  might  slip  across  the 
island  that  night  and  steal  one  of  the  12-inch  guns ! 
Four  sailors  and  a  petty  officer,  carrying  their  bread, 
sausages  and  beer,  came  to  look  after  us.  Next  morn- 
ing another  young  naval  lieutenant  introduced  himself 
—  it  was  about  6  a.  m.  No,  thank  you ;  he  had  break- 
fasted already.  He  made  certain  that  his  colleagues 
had  overlooked  no  errors  in  the  bill  of  lading,  the  list 
of  the  crew,  and  half  a  dozen  other  manifests ;  and 
after  another  thorough  scrutiny  of  the  ensemble,  de- 
parted with  his  men  and  the  remnants  of  their  pro- 
visions, which  had  polluted  the  air  of  our  not  over- 
ventilated  little  cabin. 

We  passed  the  Roter  Sand  Lighthouse  that  should 
be,  but  was  no  more,  and  actually  had  paddled  along 
six  or  eight  knots  unassisted  before  we  were  held  up 
again.  "  Stop  at  once,"  was  the  signal  from  another 
torpedo-boat  that  might  have  served  as  an  escort  to 
Noah's  Ark.  Of  course,  it  was  the  same  rigmarole  all 
over  again.  "  Hadn't  you  better  take  a  pilot  along.''  " 
inquired  the  naval  officer  of  the  skipper.  The  latter, 
having  made  the  journey  for  the  last  ten  years,  week 
after  week,  knew  the  channels  as  well  as  any  pilot; 
still,  mines  might  have  shifted  during  the  night,  so  he 
might  as  well  transfer  the  responsibility  of  the  vessel 
to  a  German  pilot.  Up  went  our  flag  bordered  with 
white,  and  a  large  sailing  vessel,  which  had  been  lying 
inshore,  made  for  us.  The  weather  out  there  was  very 
dirty.  We  had  to  manreuvre  our  ship  round  several 
times,  in  order  to  make  a  lee  for  the  little  yawl  bringing 


S76         BEHIND  THE  GERMAN  VEIL 

the  pilot.  After  he  had  come  on  board  we  had  peace 
for  a  few  hours.  Nothing  to  worry  us  but  a  stiff 
northwest  gale,  that  tried  hard  to  blow  us  on  one  of 
the  many  sandbanks,  and  every  few  minutes  a  wave 
that  drove  everything  loose  on  deck  before  it.  One  of 
the  stokers  was  a  new  hand,  and  this  was  his  first  taste 
of  the  North  Sea.  How  sorry  I  felt  for  the  poor  devil. 
For  several  hours  he  stood  on  deck  frantically  holding 
on  to  the  railings  to  avoid  being  washed  ofT.  Every 
once  in  a  while  he  would  bravely  descend,  but  only  for 
a  very  few  minutes.  He  ended  up  by  having  himself 
tied  to  the  lee  rail,  and  he  stayed  there  till  we  reached 
calmer  waters. 

We  gave  the  treacherous  Scharhorn  a  wide  berth, 
and  then  turned  east  towards  the  Elbe  mouth  and 
Cuxhaven,  where  they  began  to  worry  us  again.  A 
patrol  boat  waved  its  welcome  to  us,  and  subsequently 
gave  us  a  lead,  while  four  of  her  crew  under  a  junior 
officer  searched  us.  The  process  of  examination  was 
repeated  a  few  more  times,  but  at  last  we  reached  Cux- 
haven, where  we  were  to  put  up  for  the  night. 

We  had  accomplished  over  forty-two  miles  that  day. 
A  record !  It  was  still  early  —  about  4  p.  m.  It 
would  be  high  tide  for  another  two  hours.  "  Could 
we  not  go  on  to  Brunsbiittel?  "  (a  distance  of  about 
sixteen  miles)  we  inquired.  "  What,  approach  the 
Canal  at  dusk?  Were  we  mad?  Did  we  want  to  com- 
mit suicide?"  They  certainly  were  much  concerned 
about  our  safety.  Of  course,  we  had  to  take  lodgers 
again  for  the  night  —  six  of  them  this  time.  They 
made  themselves  quite  at  home  in  our  one  and  only 
cabin.  Still,  they  contented  themselves  with  one  side, 
leaving  the  opposite  seat  for  the  captain,  the  mate  and 
myself.  The  seat  was  not  built  to  accommodate  six 
stout  Germans,   and  it  was   extremely   amusing,   and 


WILHELIMSHAVEN  TO  CUXHAVEN      277 

made  up  for  many  annoyances  of  the  day,  to  see  those 
six  creatures  trying  to  hang  on  to  whatever  part  of 
the  bench  they  could  squeeze  into.  When  I  tell  you 
that  it  only  gave  the  three  of  us  just  elbow-room,  and 
that  the  Germans  were  dressed  in  top-coats,  with  belts, 
bayonets,  cartridge  pouches,  etc.,  you  may  better 
imagine  than  I  can  describe  the  amount  of  comfort  they 
enjoyed.  Whenever  one  of  them  wanted  to  get  at  his 
provisions,  he  had  to  stand  up,  and  his  place,  like  a 
hole  in  dry  sand,  filled  up  at  once. 

One  of  them  had  a  little  terrier  with  him.  I  liked 
him  —  the  dog,  I  mean  —  and,  when  I  heard  its  pa- 
thetic story,  I  took  it  literally  to  my  heart.  It  had 
to  answer  to  a  name  that  sounded  like  Ooleel,  but  was 
meant  to  stand  for  "  U  "  and  "  Lille."  The  dog  was 
a  trophy  brought  home  by  a  relative  of  the  present 
owner,  who,  serving  on  a  submarine,  had  rescued  him 
from  the  torpedoed  VUle  de  Lille.  Poor  U-Lille  had 
not  heard  his  native  tongue  for  a  long  time,  and,  when 
I  addressed  him  in  French,  he  pricked  up  his  ears, 
stood  on  his  hind  legs,  and  put  his  little  head  on  my 
knee,  while  his  brown  eyes  looked  wistfully  at  me,  as 
if  he  wanted  to  say :  "  Take  me  away  from  these  Huns, 
take  me  back  to  my  master." 

But  to  return  to  his  present  master  and  his  com- 
panions. "  Seen  any  Britishers  hanging  round  here 
lately?"  I  inquired.  "Ugh!"  grunted  the  fattest  of 
the  lot,  while  cutting  his  sausages  into  inch-thick  slices, 
with  a  pocket-knife  large  enough  for  a  chef  cook ; 
"  there  isn't  the  smell  of  a  Britisher  left  on  the  North 
Sea."  "Well,  that's  cheerful,"  I  replied.  "You 
couldn't  say  the  same  about  Germans  —  eh?"  It 
passed  by  most  of  them,  except  a  little  dark  man  with 
narrow  slits  in  his  head,  where  the  eyes  are  supposed  to 
be.     He  looked  quizzingly  at  me  and  slowly  remarked: 


278  BEHIND  THE  GERMAN  VEIL 

"  You  don't  seem  to  like  the  '  German  smell,'  eh?  "  "  I 
don't  mind  it,"  I  answered  indifferently,  but  added  in 
the  next  breath,  "  on  the  North  Sea !  "  One  of  the 
younger  fellows  was  addressed  and  referred  to  as  "  Pro- 
fessor." In  normal  times  he  was  swaying  a  school- 
master's baton  in  some  small  Frisian  village  near 
Emden.  He  was  quite  eager  to  show  his  prowess  and 
maintain  his  reputation  as  a  "  Gelehter "  among  his 
fellow-soldiers.  The  old  inquiry  was  made :  "  Why 
don't  you  people  go  out  and  see  whether  you  can't 
teach  the  British  a  good  lesson?"  "Ah,  no,  sir,  not 
yet,  not  yet,"  said  the  Professor,  shaking  his  thin  but 
sausage-fatted  finger,  while  gripping  with  the  other 
hand  six  inches  of  the  said  delicacy.  "  Have  you  ever 
heard  of  the  Hellenic  wars?  "  he  asked.  His  colleagues 
had  evidently  heard  the  story  before.  "You  have? 
Good!  Now  you  may  remember  in  one  of  those  wars 
there  was  a  famous  Roman  General.  His  name?  Oh, 
what  matter?  It  might  have  been  Schmidt.  He  was 
a  brave  General,  but  his  army  was  numerically  —  mind 
you,  I  am  only  saying  '  numerically  ' —  far  inferior  to 
that  of  the  enemy.  What  did  our  General  do?  Go 
and  run  after  his  adversary  and  say,  '  Please  annihilate 
me?'  No,  sir;  he  had  a  greater  duty  to  perform 
to  the  Roman  Empire.  He  chose  an  advantageous 
part  of  the  country,  a  mountain,  in  fact,  and  there 
entrenched  himself.  Now,  you  see,  so  long  as  he  re- 
mained there,  he  had  a  decided  advantage  over  the 
enemy,  in  case  the  latter  could  be  enticed  to  attack 
him.  But  the  Hellenic  General  was  not  born  3'ester- 
day,  either.  He  knew  all  the  advantages  and  the  mer- 
its of  his  Roman  opponent,  and  refused  to  be  trapped. 
Instead,  he  tried  to  taunt  his  adversary  into  coming 
down.  He  sent  a  message  to  the  Roman  General  by 
one  of  his  prisoners,  asking,  if  he  really  were  the  famous 


WILHELMSHAVEN  TO  CUXHAVEN      279 

General  he  was  supposed  to  be,  why  he  didn't  come 
down  and  fight?  The  Roman  General's  reply  was  that 
if  the  adversary  was  as  great  a  General  as  he  claimed 
to  be,  he  should  make  him  come  down  and  fight." 

Appropriate  pause  for  applause  and  admiration. 
"  So,  you  see,  there  you  are."  "  Yes,  there  you  are," 
echoed  the  five  brothers-in-arms  in  chorus.  "  With  a 
slight  modification,"  their  spokesman  continued,  "  the 
present  situation  between  England  and  Germany, 
strategically  speaking,  is  analogous.  We  say,  like  the 
Roman  General,  if  the  British  fleet  is  so  superior  to 
ours,  why  don't  they  make  us  come  out  and  fight.''  " 
"Yes,  wh}^  don't  they.''"  echoed  the  chorus  again. 

The  Professor  continued  his  harangue  for  a  consider- 
able time,  but  it  soon  lost  its  initial  freshness ;  and 
when  his  comrades,  with  the  exception  of  the  sentry  on 
deck,  one  after  the  other  nodded  off  to  sleep,  some  with 
their  heads  on  their  arms  on  the  table,  others  against 
the  side-posts  or  the  back  of  the  seat,  with  or  without 
accompaniment,  the  orator  soon  became  liis  own  (and 
sole)  audience. 


CHAPTER  XXXVII 

CUXHAVEN    TO    KIEL.       THE    CANAL 

HIGH  tide  was  about  6  a.  m.,  so  we  had  to  be  ready 
by  five.  Our  six  non-paying  guests  left  us,  and  a 
Hamburg  river-pilot  with  two  sailors  took  their  places. 
About  5  :30  a.  m.  we  were  on  our  way  for  the  last  lap 
before  reaching  the  Canal,  a  distance  of  about  sixteen 
miles.  After  skirting  the  Medem  Sand,  we  had  a  clear 
channel  of  six  fathoms,  and  bore  east  by  northeast  to 
Brunsbiittcl.  Half-way  down  we  were  flagged  again, 
this  time  by  a  torpedo-boat  that  looked  most  business- 
like. A  hasty  inspection  was  made,  and  then  we  were 
told  to  continue  with  all  possible  speed  to  Brunsbiittel, 
as  part  of  the  German  fleet  was  at  our  heels.  No  ships 
of  any  description  would  be  allowed  anywhere  near. 

We  stoked  up  the  old  Fannie  (that  Avasn't  her  real 
name)  till  she  fairly  foamed  at  the  mouth,  and  reached 
the  harbour  at  the  western  entrance  of  the  Canal  before 
eight.  Here  we  joined  a  number  of  other  small  craft, 
and  were  told  that  we  should  have  to  wait  till  the 
fleet  had  passed.  The  Brunsbiittel  entrance  of  the 
Canal  has  two  long  moles  built  out  into  the  Elbe  for  a 
length  of  from  1,200  to  1,500  feet,  while  the  width 
of  the  entrance  must  be  quite  2,800  feet,  if  not  more. 

Who  said  the  German  fleet  was  inactive?  Ask  the 
emplo3^es  of  the  Kiel  Canal  locks  at  Holtenau  and 
Brunsbiittel.  They'll  tell  you  a  different  story.  Ask 
them  hoAV  often  they  have  to  stand  by,  night  and  day, 
and  labour  at  their  jobs,  passing  the  fleet  in  and  out, 
Ask  the  coastguards  of  the  lighthouse  at  Biilk  on  the 
Kiel  Bay.     They  will  tell  vou  of  the  interesting  evolu- 

280 


CUXHAVEN  TO  KIEL.     THE  CANAL     281 

tions  of  the  German  Navy,  under  the  watching  eyes  and 
protecting  muzzles  of  the  coastal  batteries. 

Evidently,  however,  the  fleet  was  not  as  close  to  us 
as  the  torpedo-boat  commander  had  tried  to  make  us 
believe.  We  had  plenty  of  time  for  reflection  and  for 
admiration  of  the  wonderful  new  locks.  I  was  fortu- 
nate enough  to  get  an  opportunity  to  go  on  land.  The 
captain  charged  me  with  the  delivery  of  a  stack  of 
documents  at  the  office  of  the  port.  It  goes  without 
saying  that  I  was  properly  chaperoned.  Two  sailors 
with  loaded  rifles  and  bayonets  marched  one  on  each  side 
of  me.  "  What's  all  the  excitement  about.''  "  I  inquired 
innocently  of  my  two  guardian  angels.  They  replied 
almost  simultaneously,  and  with  that  peculiar  inflexion 
in  the  voice  which  ordinary  mortals  only  use  when 
speaking  about  something  spiritual :  "  Zu  Befehl. 
Flotte  macht  gross  Manover  "  ("At  your  orders,  sir. 
The  fleet  is  going  through  grand  manoeuvres").  No, 
kind  reader,  they  did  not  smile ;  there  was  not  even 
the  suspicion  of  a  twinkle  in  their  eyes.  Oh,  these 
Germans !  they  have  little  enough  sense  of  humour  at 
the  best  of  times ;  but  when  it  comes  to  matters  con- 
cerning their  fleet,  they  refuse  to  see  anything  but 
dead  serious  business.  Grand  manoeuvres  in  war-time ! 
Shades  of  Nelson!  What  next?  I  thought.  Grand 
manoeuvres  in  a  canal!  Indeed,  here  was  an  object- 
lesson  for  those  croakers  in  England  who  ask :  "  What 
is  our  fleet  doing? "  No  better  illustration  of 
"  Britannia  rules  the  Waves  "  did  I  ever  see  or  have 
seen  since,  than  on  that  murky  spring  day  last  year 
in  the  mouth  of  the  Elbe. 

Later,  at  the  Port  Office,  I  asked  an  official  what  was 
the  object  of  these  manoeuvres?  Why  didn't  they 
practise  outside,  in  the  Baltic,  or  —  Hm !  —  in  the 
North    Sea?     Oh!    that   was    a   very    simple   matter. 


282  BEHIND  THE  GERMAN  VEIL 

They  are  trying  several  times  a  month  to  reduce  the 
record  of  the  passage  time  through  the  Canal.  Did 
I  realise  that  their  biggest  ships  could  now  pass 
through  the  Canal,  from  Wik  to  Brunsbiittel,  in  a 
fraction  under  six  hours  ?  I  agreed  with  him,  of  course, 
that  such  a  performance  was  indeed  marvellous.  And 
the  riddle  suggested  itself  to  me  —  but  I  did  not  voice 
it  — "  If  a  German  Dreadnought  can  race  through  the 
sixty  miles  of  the  Canal,  including  two  locks,  in  less 
than  six  hours,  how  fast  could  it  get  out  of  the  way 
with  a  British  battleship  at  its  heels?" 

But  to  return  to  my  intercourse  with  the  official. 

"  Had  I  been  in  Germany  long.''  "  Oh,  I  knew  Ger- 
many very  well ;  in  fact,  I  had  spent  some  of  the  most 
profitable  —  educationally  speaking  —  days  of  my  life 
in  Germany.  And  I  had  been  so  fortunate  as  always 
to  encounter  only  the  cultured  type  of  German.  "  Ah ! 
hum!  what  boat  did  I  come  on.''  Oh,  yes,  quite  so  — 
the  Fannie."  Well,  we  should  have  ample  time  before 
our  papers  could  be  cleared.  Would  I  like  a  walk 
with  him?  We  might  be  able  to  see  some  of  the  ships 
at  close  quarters ;  and,  anyhow,  the  new  locks  were 
quite  worth  a  closer  inspection.  "  Well,  to  be  sure, 
that  was  most  kind  of  him.  Of  course,  it  would  be 
most  interesting  to  be  able  to  tell  my  friends  in  Neu- 
tralia  that  the  German  fleet  was  in  first-class  fighting 
trim ;  but  I  could  not  dream  of  wasting  his  valuable 
time."  "  Oh,  not  at  all !  It  would  be  a  great  pleas- 
ure. You  know,  so  few  foreigners  really  understand 
the  German  people.  We  are  so  peace-loving,  so  indus- 
trious ;  but,  by  Jupiter !  don't  pull  the  eagle's  feathers, 
for  then  his  wrath  will  punish  those  who  dare  to  attack 
his  nest  and  young.  But  come  along."  With  a  very 
superior  air  and  a  wave  of  his  right  hand,  he  dismissed 
my  two  chaperons,  who  clicked  their  heels,  saluted  and 


IX; 

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o 


CUXHAVEN  TO  KIEL.     THE  CANAL      283 

murmured,  "  Zu  Befehl,"  while  we  started  towards  the 
giant  locks. 

The  visit  was  well  worth  while.  Figures  and  sta- 
tistics are  tedious  at  best,  still  I  must  fall  back  upon 
them  for  a  moment,  in  order  to  give  some  idea  of  the 
colossal  dimensions  of  the  Kiel  Canal.  The  new  locks, 
which  were  completed  shortly  before  the  war,  have  been 
built  alongside  the  two  old  ones.  According  to  the 
official  figures  they  are  1,075  feet  long,  157  feet  wide 
and  45  feet  deep.  In  other  words,  they  are  80  feet 
longer,  50  feet  wider  and  5  feet  deeper  than  those  of 
the  Panama  Canal.  They  are  large  enough  to  hold 
eventually  a  60,000-ton  ship,  which  is  the  dream  of 
Herr  Ballin.  It  follows  that  the  largest  battleships 
can  easily  pass  through.  The  Canal  itself  is  98,65  km. 
(i.e.,  about  61  miles)  long.  It  is  141  feet  wide  at  the 
bottom  and  332  feet  wide  on  the  surface.  The  cost 
of  building  and  improvements  amounts  to  over 
$100,000,000.  Apart  from  its  great  strategical  value, 
it  saves  ships  from  going  from  the  Baltic  to  the  North 
Sea,  or  vice  Xfcrsa,  a  distance  of  450  miles  (80  as 
against  530  miles). 

About  nine  o'clock  the  champions  of  Germany's  fu- 
ture were  sighted.  The  battleship  Helgoland  was 
leading,  and  she  certainly  cut  through  the  water  in 
great  style.  With  a  distance  of  about  a  thousand  feet 
between  them,  seven  other  large  ships  followed.  Two 
torpedo-boat  flotillas  {i.e.,  twenty-two  boats)  accom- 
panied them.  Behind  the  Helgoland  came  the  Thiirin- 
gen;  then  the  Oldenburg,  followed  by  the  Ostfriesland, 
the  flagship  of  the  Helgoland  class.  Behind  them, 
again,  came  some  old  acquaintances,  viz.,  the  ships  of 
the  Kaiser  class,  consisting  of  the  Kaiser,  the  Konig 
Albert  and  the  Friedrich  der  Grosse,  the  flagship. 
The  famous  battle-cruiser  Moltke  brought  up  the  rear. 


284  BEHIND  THE  GERMAN  VEH. 

The  huge  gates  of  all  the  four  locks  were  open  as 
soon  as  the  warships  appeared  before  them ;  and,  with- 
out the  delay  of  a  second,  the  first  four  battleships  were 
berthed  inside.  Everything  worked  with  clock-like 
precision.  The  Helgoland  and  her  sister-ships  fairly 
bristled  with  guns.  She  carried  twelve  12-inch  guns, 
with  a  66  per  cent,  capacity  to  each  broadside.  Sur- 
rounding the  big  ones,  and  (it  seemed)  at  every  avail- 
able spot,  were  the  lighter  calibre  guns,  the  5.9  and 
3.4-inch,  of  which  she  carried  fourteen  each.  There 
seemed  to  be  as  many  gun  barrels  as  quills  on  a  porcu- 
pine's back. 

I  do  not  recall  exactly  how  long  it  took  those  eight 
ships  and  their  escorts  —  using  all  four  locks  —  to 
pass  from  the  Elbe  into  the  Canal ;  but  I  am  certain  it 
was  less  than  twenty  minutes  from  beginning  to  end. 
"  Well,"  inquired  my  official  escort,  "  Germany's  cause 
is  not  lost  yet,  eh?  with  such  '  Prachtkerle  '  "  (mag- 
nificent fellows)  "  to  stand  guard  over  us."  But  some- 
how my  enthusiasm  had  subsided.  It  was  a  magnificent 
sight,  yet  it  seemed  sad.  It  was  wonderful,  yet  I  could 
not  draw  any  inspiration  from  it.  Again  and  again 
there  came  leaping  back  to  my  mind  the  solemn,  con- 
fident answer  of  those  two  simple  sailors :  "  Grosse 
Manover  " ;  and,  try  as  I  would,  I  could  not  see  in  the 
whole  performance  anything  else  but  a  practical  demon- 
stration of  England's  sea  power.  These  splendid  ships 
deserved  a  better  fate  than  "  Grand  Manoeuvres  "  in  a 
canal ! 

When  I  returned  on  board  the  captain  seemed  sur- 
prised and  at  the  same  time  relieved  to  see  me  back. 

"  Where  the have  you  been?  "  he  asked.     "  This 

is  the  first  time  I  know  that  any  non-German  ever 
spent  so  much  time  on  land.  We  began  to  think  you 
had  been  arrested.     It  does  not  take  much,  you  know, 


CUXHAVEN  TO  KIEL.     THE  CANAL      285 

in  this  part  of  the  world  in  these  days,  to  be  locked 
up.  A  careless  question,  one  yard  off  the  straight  and 
narrow  path,  and  you're  in  for  it."  While  I  had  been 
well  entertained  on  shore,  they  had  had  the  usual  per- 
formance on  board.  Every  corner  had  been  searched 
and  examined  by  a  staff  of  experts.  The  engines,  too, 
were  tested,  to  avoid  a  possible  breakdown  in  the  Canal, 
What  were  they  searching  for  in  these  ships  of  legiti- 
mate traders  attached  to  the  German  fleet.''  "Dyna- 
mite, sir,  This  is  our  war  (so  they  say!).  We  are 
fighting  for  our  existence,  and  we  are  not  going  to 
take  anybody's  word  for  anything.     We  make  sure." 

We  were  not  allowed  to  follow  in  the  wake  of  the 
proud  Armada,  but  had  to  wait  for  further  orders. 
The  surprise  of  the  day  was  yet  in  store  for  me.  About 
noon  my  friend  the  harbour  official  came  to  our  boat 
and  invited  me  once  again  to  go  for  a  little  walk.  As 
we  reached  the  docks,  I  could  see  in  the  distance  the 
smoking  funnels  of  a  number  of  warships.  "  What 
ships  are  those.?"  I  asked.  "The  same  you  saw  this 
morning,"  my  cicerone  replied;  and  when  I  exclaimed: 
"  But  they  are  coming  towards  us,"  I  am  sure  he  was 
the  proudest  man  in  Germany  that  day.  "  Yes,  that's 
just  it.  That  is  what  I  wanted  to  show  you.  When 
they  were  about  ten  miles  up  the  Canal  they  received  sud- 
den orders  to  turn  about.  They  continued  a  distance 
of  from  one  to  two  miles  —  according  to  the  position 
of  the  squadron  — -  to  the  next  turning-basin,  swung 
round,  and  here  they  are  again."  And,  indeed,  there 
they  came,  in  the  order  in  which  they  had  passed  in. 

Since  the  enlargements  and  improvements  of  the 
Canal,  it  has  four  turning-basins  at  different  points, 
each  with  a  minimum  width  at  the  bottom  of  nearly  a 
thousand  feet.  They  are  for  the  use  of  the  fleet  only. 
Ordinary  vessels,  once  they  are  in  the  Canal,  must  con- 


286  BEHIND  THE  GERMAN  VEIL 

tinue  in  tlie  same  direction.  These  improvements  were 
only  completed  in  June,  1914.  A  British  squadron, 
under  Admiral  Sir  George  Warrender,  attended  the 
opening  festivities,  and  part  of  it  passed  through  the 
Canal  at  that  time.  It  consisted  of  the  cruisers 
BirmingJiam,  Southampton  and  Nottingham,  and  the 
Dreadnoughts  King  George  V,,  the  Audacious,  the 
Centurion  and  Ajax.  The  cruisers  returned  to  Eng- 
land through  the  Canal,  but,  for  some  reason  or  other, 
Sir  George,  though  offered  the  hospitality  of  the  new 
waterway,  preferred  to  take  his  large  battleships  back 
by  the  long  route  round  the  Skager  Rak.  How  far, 
far  off  those  days  seem  now !  In  addition  to  the  turn- 
ing-basins there  are  eleven  sidings  (formerly  eight). 
All  the  bridges  have  been  rebuilt,  so  that  most  of  them 
are  now  between  100  and  150  feet  above  the  surface. 

It  was  nearly  one  o'clock  before  we  finally  made  our 
entrance  into  the  Canal.  The  huge  gaping  mouths  of 
the  "  small  "  locks  (nearly  400  feet  long)  swallowed  us 
up,  and  ten  minutes  later  we  were  inside.  Together 
with  the  other  small  craft,  the  number  of  which  by  now 
had  increased  to  seventeen,  led  by  one  naval  tug  and 
followed  by  another,  our  procession  started  at  a  fair 
pace  on  its  sixty-one-mile  journey  through  the  most 
jealously-guarded  stretch  of  waterway  in  the  world. 
Once  on  the  way  our  progress  was  fairly  rapid.  I 
think  we  made  our  eight  to  nine  knots  easily.  At 
Taterpfahl,  about  four  miles  beyond  the  locks,  we 
passed  underneath  the  first  railroad  bridge,  a  magnifi- 
cent structure,  standing  well  over  140  feet  above  the 
level  of  the  Canal.  I  noticed  how  very  sparsely  and 
compactly  it  seems  to  have  been  built.  You  might 
blow  it  up,  but  unless  there  happened  to  be  a  train 
on  it  at  the  time,  the  debris  could  be  picked  up  and 
removed  from  the  Canal  in  a  very  short  time.     The 


CUXHAVEN  TO  KIEL.     THE  CANAL      287 

supports  stood  well  ftack  from  the  banks,  and  no 
amount  of  dynamite  could  blow  them  into  the  water- 
way. The  stations  on  both  sides  are  over  a  mile  dis- 
tant from  the  Canal. 

With  the  exception  of  an  isolated  hill  here  and  there, 
the  surrounding  country  was  flat,  marshy,  and  gener- 
ally uninteresting.  It  reminded  me  of  the  Norfolk 
Broads  on  a  rainy  day.  Now  and  then  we  could  see 
in  the  dim  distance  the  top  of  a  church-spire.  Both 
sides  of  the  Canal  were  guarded  at  regular  intervals 
by  double  sentries.  Numerous  militar}'  huts  and  sen- 
try-boxes were  stationed  at  every  mile.  There  must 
have  been  a  soldier  for  every  hundred  yards.  Anti-air- 
craft guns  were  lavishly  distributed  along  the  entire 
distance,  especially  on  and  near  the  bridges.  At  less 
than  twelve  miles  from  the  entrance  we  reached  a  small 
lake,  which  had  been  dredged  and  deepened  and  now 
forms  turning-basin  No.  4. 

At  Griinenthal,  nineteen  miles  from  the  North  Sea 
entrance,  we  passed  under  another  magnificent  fixed 
bridge,  about  150  feet  above  the  surface  and  with  a 
span  of  540  feet.  I  counted  four  large  Krupp  anti- 
aircraft guns  on  it.  After  passing  several  sidings,  we 
reached  Meckel  Lake,  another  turning-basin.  At 
Rendsburg,  thirty-seven  miles  from  our  starting-point, 
we  passed  under  the  recently  completed  all-steel  high- 
level  railroad  bridge,  also  some  150  feet  above  the 
water.  Half  a  mile  or  so  further  on  a  turn-bridge 
crossed  the  Canal ;  and  I  noticed  a  group  of  civilians, 
led  and  followed  by  two  soldiers,  crossing  it.  It  looked 
like  a  transport  of  prisoners,  but  it  was  not.  They 
were  merely  natives,  crossing  from  one  side  of  the  Canal 
to  the  other. 

From  Rendsburg  the  Canal  follows  for  about  eight 
miles  the  old  course  of  the  Eider  Channel,  made  in  1874 


288  BEHIND  THE  GERMAN  VEIL 

by  King  Christian  VII.  of  Denmark.  As  complete 
darkness  had  overtaken  us  by  the  time  we  reached 
Rendsburg,  we  were  ordered  to  enter  a  small  harbour 
and  make  fast  for  the  night.  Nobody  was  allowed  to 
land.  Several  Landsturm  men  were  billeted  on  us,  un- 
der command  of  a  young  Reserve  Lieutenant.  He  was 
quite  a  pleasant  fellow.  In  civilian  life  he  was  a  Pro- 
fessor, and  taught  History  at  the  University  of  Berlin. 
After  having  assigned  his  men  their  places  and  duties, 
he  joined  us  in  our  cabin,  and,  of  course,  the  conversa- 
tion soon  drifted  into  the  topics  of  the  day  —  the  war, 
their  ships,  their  chances  of  success  in  a  naval  battle. 

"  Why  should  we  come  out  and  risk  the  destruction 
of  our  fleet  ?  "  the  officer  replied,  in  answer  to  my  in- 
quiry on  this  point.  "  We  should  have  much  to  gain 
if  we  won,  that  is  true  enough ;  but  I  think  the  disaster, 
in  case  we  should  lose,  would  be  far  greater."  And 
he  went  on  to  explain,  illustrating  his  discourse  from 
English  naval  history,  that  so  long  as  Germany  kept 
its  "  Fleet  in  being,"  there  was  always  a  possibility  of 
eluding  the  enemy's  main  forces,  while  he  would  be 
obliged  to  keep  his  fleet  massed,  so  as  to  have  a  superi- 
ority in  any  naval  engagement  that  might  ensue. 

He  was  a  pleasant  and  interesting  talker,  but  leading 
questions  he  swept  aside.  He  chose  his  own  line  of 
argument,  and  no  amount  of  facts  could  turn  him  from 
it.  I  asked  him  what  had  become  of  their  exports  and 
their  colonies?  In  what  manner  had  the  German  fleet 
fulfilled  its  mission  to  "  protect  our  overseas  posses- 
sions," as  Tirpitz  expressed  it,  when  he  demanded  an 
increased  Naval  Budget? 

Was  it  not  one  of  their  own  great  geographists, 
Friedrich  Natzel,  who  had  written  hardly  two  years 
ago :  "  The  oceans  are  only  the  highways.  A  road 
without  a  definite  end  and  a  goal  is  nothing.     Th*  be- 


12: 


O 


o 
S 

O 

< 


o 
O 


ai 


CUXHAVEN  TO  KIEL.     THE  CANAL      289 

ginning  of  this  highway,  which  our  fleet  must  protect 
and  bridge,  hes  on  our  shores,  in  our  Vaterland.  Our 
object,  the  end  of  the  road,  Hes  across  the  seas,  in 
far-off  lands." 

But  it  takes  more  than  mere  facts  to  shake  a  Ger- 
man's colossal  confidence  in  the  ruling  powers.  "  Wir 
werden  sehen "  (We  shall  see)  was  always  his  final 
retort. 

The  country  that  greeted  us  next  morning  was  quite 
diflPerent,  and  a  very  pleasant  change  from  the  dull, 
marshy  flats  of  the  day  before.  The  Canal,  after  hav- 
ing turned  east,  now  passed  through  a  country  of  many 
small  lakes,  sprinkled  with  miniature  islands.  The 
surrounding  hills  varied  in  height  from  50  to  300  feet, 
and  were  covered  with  pine  or  beech  woods.  At  Quarn- 
beck,  about  ten  miles  from  the  eastern  entrance  to  the 
Canal,  we  passed  through  Flemhuder  Lake,  which  forms 
turning-basin  No.  1.  Shortly  before  noon  we  reached 
the  Baltic  locks  at  Holtenau-Wik,  where  we  had  to  go 
through  a  new  series  of  examinations  before  the  neces- 
sary permits  were  issued. 

At  this  entrance  the  new  giant  locks  have  been  built 
on  the  south  side  of  the  old  ones,  nearest  to  the  Naval 
Barracks  at  "  Wik."  It  took  us  the  best  part  of  two 
hours  to  clear  and,  during  that  time,  there  was  no 
"  kind  and  cultured  "  official  to  take  me  on  a  person- 
ally-conducted tour  of  the  locks.  Still,  as  they  are 
of  exactly  the  same  type  as  those  at  the  North  Sea 
entrance,  I  did  not  lose  much. 


CHAPTER  XXXVIII 

KIEL,    HARBOUE 

WE  faced  a  most  imposing  spectable  when,  after 
leaving  the  approaches  to  the  locks,  we  turned 
south,  entering  Kiel  Harbour  proper.  There  before  us 
lay  the  great  "  Fleet  in  being."  We  passed  close  by 
the  Lothringen,  the  Markgraf,  the  Nassau,  the  Wit- 
telshacli,  etc.  Torpedo-boats,  pinnaces,  motor-boats, 
yawls,  launches,  boats  of  all  kinds  and  descriptions, 
twined  their  way  in  and  out  between  the  big  ships. 
The  Imperial  Yacht  Hohenzollern  showed  up  very  con- 
spicuous in  its  coat  of  white  paint,  among  the  dark- 
grey  monsters.  Close  by  her  lay  the  armoured  cruiser 
Von  der  Tann,  with  steam  up.  Soon  after  we  had 
passed  her  she  slowly  moved  down  the  line  towards  the 
Baltic.     "Manoeuvres,"  I  suppose! 

The  distance  from  the  Canal  mouth  to  the  Imperial 
Dockyards  is  about  four  miles  as  the  crow  flies.  On 
our  left,  as  we  went  up  the  harbour,  we  passed  the 
huge  shipbuilding  yards  of  the  Howaldts  Works.  An- 
other half-mile  or  so  further  brought  us  to  the  Imperial 
Wharf.  The  air  reverberated  with  a  hundred  different 
noises  and  sounds.  The  electric  steel-hammers  from 
the  dock-yards  mingled  with  the  warning  notes  of  the 
torpedo-boat  sirens.  There  was  whistling,  shouting, 
cursing.  It  was,  as  at  Wilhelmshaven  —  bustle,  activ- 
ity, life,  all  round.  One  felt  surcharged  with  the  elec- 
tricity of  one's  surroundings  and  swept  away  by  the 
exhilarating  atmosphere. 

The  large  battleships,  all  cleared  for  action,  ap- 
peared less  out  of  place  here  than  those  I  had  seen  the 

290 


KIEL  HARBOUR  ^91 

day  before  in  the  Canal.  The  defying  angles  of  their 
guns,  their  towering  walls  of  steel  plate,  the  giant 
bridges  and  solid  gun-turrets,  seemed  to  throw  a  chal- 
lenge to  all  the  world.  Yet,  did  they?  Their  main 
occupation  seemed  to  be  playing  hide-and-seek  with 
each  other  in  the  Canal.  The  ships  have  every  appear- 
ance of  being  most  perfect  fighting  units.  The  sight 
of  them  warms  the  heart  of  any  lover  of  sea-power. 
Yet,  while  the  sister  organisation,  the  German  Army, 
on  the  two  occasions  when  I  have  attended  its  manoeu- 
vres, and  also  during  my  recent  trip  to  the  Eastern 
front,  where  I  saw  it  overcome  almost  insurmountable 
obstacles,  could  arouse  my  enthusiasm,  these  big,  over- 
armed  monsters  left  me  cold.  The  more  I  saw  of  the 
German  fleet,  and  talked  to  its  officers  and  its  men, 
the  more  I  became  convinced  that  this  war  is  not  going 
to  see  a  naval  battle  fought  out  to  the  bitter  end.  My 
trips  have  proved  to  me  that,  in  the  widest  sense  of 
the  term,  the  Germans  spoke  the  truth  when  they  said : 
"  We  are  not  going  to  take  any  chances  with  our 
fleet." 

Not  the  least  interesting  thing  about  Kiel  is  its  name. 
It  is  one  of  the  few  places  I  know  of  that  have  been 
appropriately  christened.  The  name  "  Kiel  "  appears 
as  earh'  as  the  tenth  century,  and  is  derived  from  the 
Anglo-Saxon  word  "  Kille,"  which  means  a  safe  place 
for  ships.  As  to  Kiel  itself,  I  am  not  going  to  swamp 
you  with  statistics.  If  you  want  to  know  how  many 
dockyards  there  are  in  Kiel,  how  many  ships  are  build- 
ing, etc.,  take  a  British  Year  Book  giving  information 
about  Germany,  multiply  its  figures  by  two,  and  you 
have  a  fairly  accurate  estimate.  Though  the  whole 
bay  is  about  eleven  miles  long,  the  "  Kiel  "  begins  only 
about  five  miles  from  its  head,  where  the  two  shores 
approach  each  other  to  within  three-quarters  of  a  mile. 


292  BEHIND  THE  GERMAN  VEIL 

The  Narrows  are  surrounded  by  forts  of  the  very  latest 
construction,  armed  with  large-calibre  guns  (most  of 
them,  it  is  said,  15-inch),  protected  by  armour-plates 
of  the  famous  Gruson  steel.  The  most  important  forts 
are  Friedrichsort  (which  protects  the  Baltic  entrance 
of  the  Canal),  Fort  Herwarth,  and  Fort  Falkenstein 
on  the  western  shore.  On  the  eastern  side  there  are 
Forts  Stosch,  Koriigen,  Unter-Jagersberg,  Moltenort, 
and  several  others  (see  map). 

The  day  of  my  arrival  in  Kiel,  I  was  invited  to  see 
some  of  the  German  warships  in  action  —  in  Kiel  Bay. 
My  naval  friend  and  another  officer  called  for  me  at 
my  hotel  in  a  huge  grey  car,  with  Germany's  coat-of- 
arms  painted  all  over  it.  The  car  was  a  German 
*'  Mercedes,"  and  certainly  built  for  speed.  An  orderly 
was  seated  next  to  the  driver,  and  frequently  blew  a 
long  horn  of  a  peculiar  but  not  unpleasant  sound. 
Whenever  the  man  sounded  his  "  Ta-ri-ta-ta,"  man, 
woman,  child  and  beast,  within  half  a  mile,  ran  for 
cover.  Through  the  suburb  of  Gaarden  we  flew,  then 
north  through  the  People's  Park,  past  the  Imperial 
Wharf,  and  through  Elterbeck  and  Wellingdorf.  At 
the  Howaldts  Dockyards  we  were  ferried  across  the 
Schwentine,  and  then  turned  northwest  again  to  reach 
the  shore-road.  Just  north  of  the  Naval  Artillery 
depot  (ammunition  magazines)  we  stopped,  and  our 
guide  invited  us  to  leave  the  car  and  follow  him  to  a 
promontory  for  a  view  of  the  harbour. 

It  was,  indeed,  well  worth  while.  The  sight  was 
superb.  In  front  of  us  to  left,  to  right,  wherever  our 
eyes  travelled,  we  saw  nothing  but  warships,  of  all 
types  and  ages.  On  closer  inspection,  I  noticed,  first, 
four  distinct  lines  of  them,  anchored  near  large  black 
and  white  buoys.  The  naval  officer  explained  to  me 
the  different  anchorages.     The  four  rows  of  buoys  are 


KIEL  HARBOUR  ^93 

designated  respectively  A,  B,  C  and  D,  the  letters  being 
followed  by  numbers  beginning  with  zero  (nearest  to 
Kiel)  and  running  up  to  IT  (see  map). 

At  the  Naval  College  I  was  shown  a  large  map  of 
Kiel  Harbour. 

The  most  interesting  features  of  this  map  were  the 
corrections  made  on  it  since  the  beginning  of  the  war. 
The  names  of  the  ships  were  printed  in  fat  black  type, 
but  I  noticed  at  once  a  fair  sprinkling  of  red  lines  and 
dates.  These  indicate  the  ships  that  have  been  lost, 
and  the  dates  on  which  the  losses  occurred.  (In  the 
map,  as  reproduced  here,  the  lost  ships  are  under- 
lined. ) 

Less  than  a  third  of  a  mile  in  front  of  us,  at  A  11, 
lay  the  Kaiser,  one  of  Germany's  finest  25,000-ton  bat- 
tleships, with  a  broadside  of  ten  12-inch  guns.  When 
with  the  fleet  the  Kaiser  lives  on  her.  About  a  thou- 
sand feet  in  front  of  her,  towards  the  mouth  of  the 
harbour,  at  A  12,  the  Kaiserin  was  anchored.  Through 
our  glasses  we  could  follow  the  lines  north  and  south. 
A  10  was  empty,  while  at  A  9  the  Kaiser's  yacht  Hohen- 
zollern  was  riding.  Next  to  her,  at  A  8,  lay  the 
Friedricli  der  Grosse,  the  flagship  of  the  fleet.  Al- 
though belonging  to  the  Kaiser  class,  she  was  placed 
well  back  in  harbour,  separated  from  the  other  ships. 
A  7  was  empty,  and  the  British  Fleet  knows  why.  Once 
it  had  been  the  safe  slumbering  place  of  the  Bluclier. 
Buoy  A  6  should  have  been  occupied  by  the  Deutsch- 
land,  but  she  was  "  draussen  "  (outside),  we  were  told. 
"  Where .f^  In  the  North  Sea  or  the  Baltic?  "  I  could 
not  resist  asking.  Our  guide  did  not  know.  Probably 
she  was  gallivanting  round  the  North  Sea,  looking  for 
the  British  that  never  came,  aching  for  a  scrap  —  like 
her  late  neighbour  at  A  7.  Still  further  down,  at  No. 
1,  was  another  ominous  vacancy,  viz.,  the  Mainz  buoy. 


294  BEHIND  THE  GERMAN  VEIL 

The  more  one  looked  at  those  lines  through  one's  glasses, 
the  more  vacancies  one  observed.  Our  guide  knew 
the  names  of  all  the  missing  ships.  What  a  host  of 
memories  were  called  up  when  he  sadly  pointed  towards 
Buoy  5  B,  once  the  Emden  anchorage ;  to  Buoy  A  17, 
the  former  home  of  the  Gneisenau. 

Besides  these  four  rows  there  are  two  others  —  an 
alphabetical  line,  indicated  by  numbers  only,  and  a 
numerical  line,  indicated  by  numbers  only.  In  the 
alphabetical  row  were  also  one  or  two  blanks  which 
never  would  be  filled  again  by  their  original  owners, 
viz..  Buoy  "  F,"  which  was  the  old  home  of  the  little 
Hela,  torpedoed  in  August,  1914,  and  at  "  K,"  the 
anchorage  of  the  Koln,  sunk  in  the  same  month.  The 
"  D  "  column  had  a  vacancy  at  No.  3,  where  the  fast 
cruiser  Magdeburg  will  never  sleep  again.  It  was  quite 
an  imposing  spectacle,  but  I  must  admit  having  been 
bloodthirsty  enough  to  wish  for  a  few  vacancies  in  the 
lines.  There  were  too  many  battleships  left;  and,  as  I 
gazed  at  them  so  peacefully  and  safely  at  anchor  there, 
I  thought  how  the  sight  would  warm  the  heart  of  any 
British  submarine  commander.  What  a  place  for  tor- 
pedoes !  But  the  bottle-neck  of  Kiel  Bay,  only  three- 
quarters  of  a  mile  wide,  giving  entrance  to  the  real 
harbour  is  too  well  guarded. 

We  continued  our  journey  along  the  shore,  then  for 
a  bit  inland  again,  till  we  reached  Stein,  which  is  situ- 
ated on  the  northernmost  point  at  the  entrance  of  Kiel 
Harbour.  There,  before  long,  one  or  two  squadrons 
of  the  fleet  were  to  go  through  manceuvres.  From  our 
vantage-point  we  had  a  full  view  of  the  lower  part  of 
Kiel  Bay,  measuring  here  about  five  miles  across.  It 
is  the  customary  practice-ground  for  the  Kiel  Division 
of  the  German  fleet.  Opj)osite  us  was  the  Biilk  Light- 
house, once  the  guiding  beacon  for  all  who  would  enter 


KIEL  HARBOUR  295 

Kiel  Harbour.  Now  its  welcoming  rays  shine  no  more. 
A  number  of  torpedo-boats  were  busily  dashing  about, 
and  one  could  see  them  on  outpost  duty,  far  out  in  the 
Baltic.  Presently  out  of  the  thin  veil  of  the  morning 
mist,  and  preceded  by  a  flotilla  of  torpedo-boats,  which, 
like  a  pack  of  hounds,  sniffed  to  left  and  right,  search- 
ing for  their  prey,  there  arose  from  the  direction  of 
Friedrichsort  the  hull  of  a  battleship,  soon  followed  by 
another.  Gradually  a  whole  line  of  them  appeared 
round  the  point  of  Labo  Sand.  They  steamed  in  line 
ahead  at  intervals  of  about  1,000  feet.  The  first  two 
ships  were  the  Kaiser  and  the  Konig  Albert.  The 
Kaiserin  followed;  the  Prinz-Regcnt  Luitpold  was  the 
last  of  the  Kaiser  type  in  the  line.  The  flagship  Fried- 
rich  der  Grosse,  also  belonging  to  this  class,  was  absent. 
Following  these  super-Dreadnoughts  came  four  ships 
of  the  Kaiser  Friedrich  class.  Being  of  only  11,000 
tons  displacement,  they  appeared  insignificant  in  com- 
parison with  the  25,000-ton  giants  preceding  them. 
But  my  interest  in  this  class  was  at  once  aroused  when 
I  discovered  the  Kaiser  WUJielm  der  Grosse  among 
them.  In  1898,  when  returning  from  a  trip  to  Norway, 
where  my  father  and  I  had  been  fishing,  we  passed 
through  Kiel  and  found  the  town  in  great  excitement. 
The  Kaiser  was  expected  there  the  next  day  for  the 
launching  of  what  was  described  as  "  the  latest  and 
finest  German  battleship,"  the  Kaiser  Wilhelm  der 
Grosse.  We  managed  to  get  invitations  and  witnessed 
the  ceremony.  Of  course,  the  Kaiser  made  a  speech. 
If  I  am  not  mistaken,  it  was  on  this  occasion  that  he 
adopted  the  now  classical  German  motto :  "  Unsere 
Zukunft  liegt  auf  dem  Wasser  "  ("  Our  future  lies  on 
the  water").  The  Emperor  was  accompanied  by  the 
Empress  and  an  elderly  female  relative.  The  latter 
was  to  perform  the  christeninfj,  but  the  suspended  bottle 


296  BEHIND  THE  GERMAN  VEIL 

of  champagne,  set  in  motion  by  her  too  feeble  hand, 
never  reached  the  hull.  Wilhelm  quickly  jumped  to  the 
rescue,  and  while  pronouncing  the  christening  formula, 
with  a  powerful,  I  think  almost  angry,  swing,  dashed 
the  bottle  against  the  ship.  And  now,  after  seventeen 
years,  I  met  the  Kaiser  Wilhelm  der  Grosse  once  more. 
Times  had  changed,  for  her  as  well.  Once  the  finest 
and  largest  battleship  of  the  German  Navy,  "  symbol- 
ising," in  the  Kaiser's  own  words,  "  Germany's  future 
Empire  of  the  Sea,"  she  seemed  now,  compared  Avith 
those  modem  super-Dreadnoughts,  but  a  "  relic  of  the 
past." 

I  regret  to  say  that  my  naval  vocabulary  is  inade- 
quate to  describe  the  manoeuvres  those  ships  were  put 
through,  though  they  did  not  seem  to  be  very  compli- 
cated. They  consisted  largely  of  moving  in  line  ahead, 
and  then  suddenly  swinging  to  port  or  starboard.  A 
figure,  which  we  should  call  in  Army  parlance  the 
*'  echelon  "  formation,  was  also  executed  several  times. 
The  final  manoeuvre  was  a  surprise  attack  by  torpedo- 
boats.  Two  flotillas  (twenty -two  boats),  which  had 
been  in  the  fire  lee  of  the  Friedrich  class,  suddenly 
dashed  out  from  behind  them  and  advanced  to  within 
three  thousand  yards  of  their  presumed  adversaries, 
from  which  distance  they  were  supposed  to  fire  their 
torpedoes.  Then,  as  fast  as  they  had  come,  they  swung 
round  and  returned  to  shelter  behind  their  own  ships. 
Several  of  the  German  officers,  whom  I  met,  claimed  that 
the  German  torpedo-boat  had  reached  a  very  high  de- 
gree of  efficiency.  I  must  admit  that  I  admired  what 
I  saw  of  their  work  that  day  and  also  on  subsequent  oc- 
casions. Though  some  of  their  evolutions  might  be 
described  as  "  playing  to  the  gallery,"  every  manoeuvre 
was  carried  out  quick  and  clean.  Cutting  through  a 
line  of  battleships,  going  at  full  speed  ahead,  calls  for 


KIEL  HARBOUR  297 

a  brain  as  quick  as  lightning  and  the  greatest  skill. 
Whether  exercises  of  this  kind  would  ever  be  required  in 
an  actual  sea-fight  is  perhaps  problematical;  but  they 
looked  well. 


CHAPTER  XXXIX 

TRAINING    AND    STRATEGY 

IN  the  course  of  my  visit  to  various  German  naval 
bases  I  naturally  heard  and  saw  much  of  the  train- 
ing of  the  German  sailor.  The  drilling  of  the  personnel 
of  the  German  Navy,  like  that  of  her  Army,  is  system- 
atic, almost  perfect  in  every  detail.  But  it  has  the 
usual  defects  of  a  virtue  carried  to  extremes.  The  men 
are  overtrained.  The  German  is  not  amphibious ;  he 
is  not  web-footed  like  Jack  Tar.  He  is  a  soldier  first 
and  last ;  and  while  both  soldiers  and  sailors  are  fight- 
ing men,  there  are,  or  should  be,  many  differences  in  the 
method  of  their  training.  Nevertheless,  whenever  I 
maintained  that  the  German  system  produced  only  au- 
tomatons, I  was  emphatically  assured  that,  even  if  every 
officer  on  board  a  German  battleship  were  killed,  the 
gunners  would  continue  the  fight  and  the  ship  would 
be  navigated.  It  is  a  strange  phenomenon  that  every 
naval  officer  with  whom  I  have  ever  discussed  crew 
efficiency,  whether  his  nationality  was  British,  Dutch, 
American,  French,  Italian,  or  Japanese,  claimed  this 
same  perfection  of  training  for  the  personnel  of  his  own 
fleet. 

One  day  I  witnessed  a  sham  battle,  also  in  Kiel  Bay. 
The  manoeuvre  seemed  to  be  largely  a  practice  for  each 
separate  ship.  For  instance,  a  signal  from  the  flagship 
to  one  of  its  units  read :  "  You  have  a  large  hole  amid- 
ships, three  feet  below  the  water  line ;  your  boiler, 
No.  2,  has  been  blown  up ;  captain  is  killed!"  The 
problem   of   what   to   do   in   these   conditions   must   be 

worked   out   by   the   diff'erent   commanders,   under   the 

298 


TRAINING  AND  STRATEGY  299 

watching,  critical  eyes  of  a  Commission  of  higher  Naval 
Officers.  Every  officer  is  from  time  to  time  suddenly 
transferred  to  another  department.  However  small  or 
unimportant  his  command,  he  has  several  understudies. 
"  Every  possible  contingency  which  might  occur  is  prac- 
tised," so  I  was  solemnly  assured. 

It  may  be  interesting  here  to  quote  what  Rear-Ad- 
miral Holzhauer,  an  active  officer  of  the  German  Navy, 
has  to  say  on  the  subject  of  training: 

"  No  battleship  crew  can  be  called  efficient  until  it 
has  been  trained  and  knows  what  to  do  in  every  possible 
contingency  that  could  arise  in  an  actual  sea-fight. 

"  There  must  hardly  be  a  condition  which  might  arise 
in  war-time  that  has  not  been  practised  in  peace  ma- 
noeuvres. Only  when  you  have  reached  the  stage  when 
there  are  no  surprises  possible,  then  only  can  you  call 
your  crew  competent." 

But  the  information  I  received  was  by  no  means  con- 
fined to  German  naval  affairs.  I  learned  more  about 
the  British  Navy  during  those  few  months  in  Germany 
than  I  have  in  England  for  ten  years.  For  instance, 
when  we  were  talking  about  submarines  one  evening,  a 
German  naval  officer  gave  me  an  elaborate  account  of 
the  British  boats,  describing  all  the  different  classes, 
from  the  oldest  to  the  newest,  in  great  detail.  If  his 
statements  were  correct,  they  prove  that  a  good  deal 
of  British  naval  information  still  finds  its  way  to  Ger- 
many, for  I  understand  that  the  boats  of  the  "  F  " 
class,  and  those  of  the  Nautilus  and  the  Szvordfish  types, 
have  only  recently  been  commissioned.  I  learned  also 
of  a  new  "  crime "  committed  by  "  Perfide  Albion," 
which  deserves  to  be  recorded.  It  is  not  enough  that 
England  will  persist  in  keeping  ahead  of  Germany  by 
always  going  one  better,  whenever  that  peace-loving 
country   lays   down   a  new  battleship ;  she  must  now 


300  BEHIND  THE  GERMAN  VEIL 

aggravate  the  Fatherland  still  more  by  building  "  sham 
Dreadnoughts."  "  Sham  Dreadnoughts  !  "  I  exclaimed. 
"What  do  you  mean?  Oh,  you  are  thinking  of  the 
resurrected  '  Tiger.'  You  mean  '  ghost '  Dread- 
noughts ?  "  No,  they  did  not  mean  anything  of  the 
kind.  They  meant  what  they  said  — "  sham  Dread- 
noughts."    No  other  words  could  describe  them. 

England  has  been  taking  lessons  from  her  valiant 
ally  Russia.  Just  as  Potemkin  conjured  up  flourishing 
villages  before  the  astonished  eyes  of  his  imperial  mis- 
tress, by  means  of  canvas  and  pasteboard,  so  the  British 
Admiralty  (I  was  informed)  has  created  a  new  fleet  of 
a  hundred  battleships,  by  means  of  canvas,  wood  and 
paint.  At  the  beginning  of  the  war  England  bought 
up  a  hundred  old  passenger  and  freight  steamers.  The 
holds  were  filled  with  stones  and  cement,  the  cross- 
beams strengthened,  and  the  hulls  painted  a  dark  grey, 
just  like  the  real  thing.  The  addition  of  a  wooden 
structure  and  turrets  armed  with  heavy-calibre  guns  — 
of  wood  —  gave  them  a  realistic  "  man-of-war  "-like 
appearance.  Several  of  these  wicked,  illegitimate  off- 
springs of  the  British  Admiralty  have  been  raised  at 
Belfast.  Many  of  them  have  already  started  on  their 
adventurous  career.  Captain  Haddock,  formerly  skip- 
per of  the  Olympic,  is  reported  to  have  supervised  the 
metamorphosis. 

"  The  names  of  some  of  these  converted  steamers  are 
the  Cevic  (White  Star  Line),  the  Merion  (Dominion 
Line),  Oruhia  and  Oratawa  (Royal  Mail  Steam  Packet 
Co.)  and  Campania  (Cunard  Line)." 

A  friend  of  my  informants,  who  were  German  naval 
officers,  had  had  an  opportunity  to  visit  one  of  the  ship- 
yards where  some  of  these  sea-terrors  were  being  con- 
verted. He  saw  one  ex-passenger  steamer  that  was 
equipped  with  wqoden  9-inch  guns,  and  it  looked  veaMy 


TRAINING  AND  STRATEGY  301 

terrible.  While  admiring  these  monsters,  a  painter, 
who  with  his  brush  and  pail  was  adding  the  finishing 
touches  to  one  of  the  turrets,  slipped  and  fell.  He 
landed  on  one  of  the  9-inch  guns  and  smashed  it  to 
pieces.  They  are  much  puzzled  in  German  naval  cir- 
cles what  possible  object  the  British  Admiralty  can 
have  in  view  with  this  colossal  sham  fleet.  They  could 
understand  that  a  real  "  man-of-war  "  should  disguise 
herself  as  an  innocent  merchantman  as,  for  instance, 
the  Sydney  did  when  she  surprised  the  "  poor  Emden" 
but  to  mask  ordinary  liners  as  battleships  —  well,  that 
beat  them. 

"  Hitherto,"  they  said,  "  the  British  have  had  their 
hands  full  in  hiding  their  real  battleships  from  German 
attacks.  Perhaps  that  may  be  the  very  service  these 
fake  '  Dreadnoughts  '  are  to  perform.  Perhaps  they 
are  intended  to  attract  our  submarines  and  cruisers. 
Thus,  the  German  battleships,  which  are  so  anxiously 
and  eagerly  scouring  the  seas,  would  be  drawn  away 
from  the  real  British  '  Dreadnoughts.'  Those  sham 
fighting  ships  would  constitute  a  sort  of  lightning  con- 
ductor for  the  real  fleet.  Or,  again,  some  other  use 
might  be  made  of  these  stone  and  cement-filled  battle- 
ships. Perhaps  they  are  to  serve  for  blocking  impor- 
tant harbours  and  channels,  as  was  done  during  the 
Spanish-American  War,  when  the  harbour  of  Santiago 
de  Cuba  was  thus  closed.  Perhaps  they  are  to  advance 
against  Kiel  —  through  Danish  waters?  Well,  be  that 
as  it  may.  The  real  English  Dreadnoughts  have  not 
been  able  to  frighten  the  German  fleet  and  our  sailors 
are  still  less  likely  to  recoil  from  wooden  guns.  The 
British,  with  their  stage  battleships,  will  not  delude  the 
watchful  administrators  of  the  German  Navy !  " 

In  conclusion  I  may  make  a  few  remarks  on  the  fu- 
ture plans  and  strategy  of  the  German  Navy.     I  can 


302  BEHIND  THE  GERMAN  VEIL 

do  no  better  than  record  here  some  of  the  passages  in 
Admiral  von  Koester's  lecture  (which  brought  me  to 
Kiel  for  the  first  time,  as  you  will  remember),  delivered 
at  the  University  there,  before  a  large  and  distinguished 
audience.  He  started  by  referring  to  the  "  inactivity 
of  the  British  fleet,"  which  at  once  put  him  right  with 
his  audience.  The  remark  was  greeted  with  overwhelm- 
ing applause.  He  said  that,  in  view  of  the  inactivity 
of  the  British  fleet,  it  had  become  sufficiently  clear  that 
England  intended  to  keep  her  fleet  intact,  in  order  to 
have  a  world-dominating  naval  force  behind  her,  when 
the  representatives  of  the  various  nations  would  meet 
to  discuss  peace  terms.  This,  of  course,  with  only  one 
object  in  view:     "  To  dictate  the  terms  of  peace." 

"  It  looks,  indeed  *' —  and  the  Admiral's  stentorian 
voice  thundered  the  words  through  the  large  hall  — 
"  as  if  the  pedlar  spirit  of  that  nation  has  even  con- 
taminated the  traditions  of  their  once  glorious  Navy. 
They  do  not  seem  to  fight  for  fame  and  honour,  but 
only  for  material  advantage.  Perhaps  they  think  that 
our  patriotic  anxiety  to  measure  our  strength  with  our 
foes  is  so  strong,  that  they  are  saying  among  them- 
selves :  '  Some  day,  they  are  certain  to  come  out,  and 
then  we  shall  be  able  to  fight  them  in  an  advantageous 
position.'  Perhaps,  too,  they  think  more  of  our  fight- 
ing ability  than  Nelson  did  of  his  opponents,  in  the  days 
when  he  attacked  the  French  and  the  Spanish  fleets. 
That  the  ofi'ensive  spirit  of  our  Navy  is  superior  to  that 
of  the  British  is  proved  by  the  fact  that  we  have  already 
attacked  the  British  coast  at  several  points,  while  no 
British  ship  has  as  yet  dared  to  show  itself  near  our 
shores." 

After  the  tremendous  applause  and  frantic  enthusi- 
asm elicited  by  this  statement  had  calmed  down,  von 
Koester  continued: 


TRAINING  AND  STRATEGY  303 

"  Confidence  in  our  fleet  is  with  us  all,  as  firm  as  a 
rock;  but  we  also  know  that  a  naval  battle  means 
*  Death  or  Victory,'  and  that  a  fleet  destroyed  cannot 
be  replaced  during  the  course  of  the  same  war,  even  if 
that  war  should  last  for  years.  It  is  therefore  abso- 
lutely essential  that  we  should  move  carefully,  with  the 
greatest  circumspection. 

, "  We  must  not  allow  ourselves  to  be  inveigled  into 
an  engagement  in  which  we  might  possibly  be  beaten. 
What  would  be  the  result,  if  to-morrow  a  great  naval 
battle  were  fought  in  which  every  one  of  our  brave  ships 
would  drag  one  of  the  enemy's,  perhaps  a  few  more, 
with  her  to  the  bottom  of  the  sea?  Then  we  should  be 
minus  a  fleet,  and  England  would  be  free  to  attack  our 
coast.  And  that  no  town  would  be  spared,  you  may 
be  certain  after  what  we  have  seen  in  our  colonies. 
Our  whole  coast,  from  Emden  to  Memel,  would  be 
threatened.  Even  attempts  to  invade  our  country 
might  be  made.  Our  fleet  must  protect  us  under  all 
circumstances,  and  must  only  risk  an  engagement  when 
it  can  be  certain  of  victory.  Unconquered  on  water 
and  on  land,  so  must  we  stand  to  gain  for  our  Father- 
land an  honourable  peace,  at  which  England's  world- 
domination  must  be  shattered.  God  grant  us  vic- 
tory !  " 

This,  I  think,  is  a  fair  sample  of  the  kind  of  soothing 
potions  which  the  German  nation  is  being  given  to  swal- 
low. Let  me  add  that  the  medicine  is  taken  by  ninety- 
five  per  cent,  of  the  population  without  even  so  much 
as  a  wry  face.  I  have  been  asked  many  times  since  my 
return  from  Germany,  if  I  thought  the  German  fleet 
would  come  out.  My  answer  can  be  found  in  von 
Koester's  speech,  where  he  says :  "  We  must  not  allow 
ourselves  to  be  inveigled  into  an  engagement  in  which 
we  might  possibly  be  beaten."     I  think,  in  fact  I  am 


304  BEHIND  THE  GERMAN  VEIL 

almost  convinced,  that  the  German  fleet  is  never  going 
to  risk  a  battle  in  which  its  existence  will  be  at  stake. 
In  other  words,  they  are  not  likely  to  venture  far  from 
their  base.  That  conviction  has  been  gained  from 
many  conversations,  inquiries,  arguments  and  observa- 
tions among  well-qualified  Germans.  The  charge  made 
by  von  Koester  against  England,  viz.,  that  she  desires 
to  be  present  at  the  peace  negotiations  with  a  fleet  in- 
tact, applies  to  Germany. 


PART   IV 

INTERVIEWS 


INTRODUCTION 

J0UKNALISTICALL.Y  speaking,  the  world  is  divided  into 
two  kinds  of  people,  those  who  want  to  be  interviewed, 
and  those  who  don't.  The  first  category  are  useless, 
because  you  rarely  get  anything  out  of  them  worth  the 
printer's  ink ;  the  second  half  is  the  one  to  concentrate 
on.  There  is  one  difficulty  at  times,  namely,  to  be  per- 
fectly certain  which  is  which.  It  is  well  to  remember 
this,  especially  in  Germany. 

In  my  chapter  on  the  Press  I  have  already  described 
the  "  Made-in-Germany  "  interview,  and  some  of  the 
vicissitudes  of  neutral  journalists  in  Berlin  (see  Chap- 
ter VI.). 

I  consider  myself  very  fortunate  in  having  been  able 
to  obtain  a  certain  number  of  entirely  independent  in- 
terviews with  various  Germans,  and  which  are  recorded 
in  the  following  chapters. 

Some  of  the  talks  I  had  were  grotesque ;  some  of  them 
were  ludicrous ;  again,  some  of  them  I  believe  to  have 
been  absolutely  genuine. 

There  was  the  calm  and  genial  von  Gwinner;  there 
were  the  thundering  and  explosive  Dr.  Biicher  and  the 
famous  Major  Herwarth  von  Bitterfeld.  There  was 
Herr  Sassenbach,  the  trades-unionist,  and  Herr  Mumm 
von  Schwarzenstein,  the  typical,  bumptious  Foreign 
Office  official.  There  was  the  truthful  and  sincere  Herr 
Crass,  of  Krupps,  and  there  were  several  —  well,  we  will 
say,  men  of  short  memory  and  long  imagination. 

Be  that  as  it  ma}',  the  majority  of  them  were,  at 
least  to  me,  intensely  interesting,  not  only  from  a  jour- 
nalistic, but  from  a  psychological  point  of  view  as  well. 

307 


308  BEHIND  THE  GERMAN  VEIL 

In  one  or  two  instances  I  have  even  scored  off  our 
formidable  friend  von  Wiegand.  I  know  that  for  the 
last  two  years  he  has  been  trying  to  interview  Herr  von 
Gwinner;  but,  in  spite  of  all  attempts,  and  the  assist- 
ance of  his  journalistic  godfather,  Erzberger,  he  has 
not  succeeded.  He  has  never  been  able  to  say  as  much 
as  "  Hullo !  "  to  von  Gwinner.  The  same  might  be  said 
with  regard  to  Herr  Crass,  of  Krupps,  Dr.  Rathenau 
and  Herr  Sassenbach,  the  Social  Democrat. 


CHAPTER  XL 

AETHUR    VON    GWINNER 

I  THINK  I  may  claim  to  have  been  the  first  —  and 
I  daresay,  after  all  the  enterprise  various  pro- 
British  newspapermen  have  recently  shown  in  Germany 
—  I  shall  be  the  last  foreign  journalist,  at  least  during 
the  war,  who  has  interviewed  Herr  Arthur  von  Gwin- 
ner,  Managing  Director  of  the  Deutsche  Bank;  Ger- 
many's greatest  financial  genius ;  intimate  friend  of  the 
Kaiser  and  the  man  behind  the  Bagdad  Railroad. 

I  brought  Herr  von  Gwinner  a  warm  letter  of  intro- 
duction from  a  mutual  friend  in  Rome.  While  I  knew 
that  this  would  ensure  admittance  to  the  holy  of  holies 
of  the  severe  palatial  edifice  of  the  Behrenstrasse,  the 
*'  Deutsche  Bank,"  I  expected  little  more  than  ten  to 
fifteen  minutes,  if  that  much,  with  the  great  man. 

I  was  very  pleasantly  disappointed  in  my  estimate. 
The  first  time  I  met  Herr  von  Gwinner  we  talked  for 
considerably  over  an  hour.  How  on  earth  this  hap- 
pened I  am  absolutely  at  a  loss  to  explain.  From  no 
one  in  Germany  did  I  expect  less  to  obtain  such  a  long 
audience  than  from  Herr  von  Gwinner.  I  saw  him  sev- 
eral times  after  our  first  meeting,  but  the  feast  was  not 
repeated,  at  least  not  as  regards  length.  Perhaps  he 
had  a  headache  that  first  day,  and  did  not  feel  like 
work ;  perhaps  it  was  because  he  loves  to  talk  French, 
and  wanted  to  make  the  best  of  his  opportunity,  which 
in  these  times,  I  presume,  does  not  occur  very  often. 

Whatever  the  reason  may  be  I  profited  by  it,  as  it  gave 

309 


310  BEHIND  THE  GERMAN  VEIL 

me  nearly  an  hour  and  a  half  with  one  of  Germany's 
greatest  men. 

As  the  late  Lord  Redesdale  says  in  his  delightful 
memoirs,  "  We  talked  about  many  things  and  some 
others." 

But,  let  me  begin  at  the  beginning. 

He  received  me  in  his  private  office  at  the  "  Deutsche 
Bank."  The  first  impression  one  gains  of  Herr  von 
Gwinner  is  exceedingly  disappointing.  He  does  not 
look  the  part  at  all.  One  would  sooner  take  him  for  a 
chemist's  clerk  than  for  the  man  who  could  dictate 
terms  to  any  one  in  Germany.  He  is  small  of  stature, 
wears  an  old  shabby  frock-coat,  and  seems  to  have  a 
weakness  for  fancy  waistcoat  (at  least,  every  time  I 
have  seen  him  he  wore  a  different  coloured  one),  and 
the  flowing  ties  which  remind  you  of  Montmartre.  The 
first  impression  soon  makes  room  for  a  second  and  a 
very  different  one.  There  is  nothing  pompous,  noth- 
ing ceremonious  about  Herr  von  Gwinner.  He  puts 
you  at  your  ease  at  once.  You  make  mental  salti 
mortales  through  a  succession  of  various  impressions 
of  the  man,  which  it  would  take  a  better  pen  than  mine 
to  sort  out.  One  moment  he  has  the  easy,  infor- 
mal manner  of  the  American  business  man,  the  slap- 
bang  "  How-d'ye-do-glad-to-see-you-take-a-seat-have- 
a-cigar "  kind ;  the  next  minute  his  manners  impress 
you  as  those  of  the  finished,  polished  man  of  the  world. 

Herr  von  Gwinner  reminds  3'ou  of  many  nationalities, 
but  least  of  all  of  his  own,  except  in  some  of  his  argu- 
ments. 

He  is  one  of  the  best-read  men  I  have  met ;  he  seems 
to  take  an  interest,  and  a  more  than  surface  one,  in 
Art ;  he  is  familiar  with  the  French  and  English  classics, 
and  discoursed  on  Wagner  and  music  as  if  he  had  made 
a  life  study  of  them. 


ARTHUR  VON  GWINNER  311 

How  on  earth  he  has  found  the  time  to  cultivate  and 
follow  all  these  hobbies,  together  with  his  most  strenu- 
ous labours  at  the  bank,  is  a  miracle  to  me.  With  it 
all  there  is  something  extremely  simple,  direct  and 
forceful  in  his  personality  which  grows  stronger  the 
better  you  know  him.  He  has  small  but  very  pene- 
trating eyes,  and  it  would  be  well  worth  while  to  see 
him  in  action  with  an  opponent  of  equal  calibre.  His 
English  and  French  were  alike  perfect,  almost  like  those 
of  a  native. 

"  As  in  many  other  cases,"  Herr  von  Gwinner  began, 
"  our  enemies  have  juggled  the  words  in  their  argu- 
ment as  to  who  started  the  war.  It  was  not  Germany 
that  made  the  war,  but  '  made  in  Germany  '  is  what 
caused  it.  Our  commerce  was  growing  in  leaps  and 
bounds ;  we  competed  with  England  in  every  part  of  the 
world,  and,  as  a  rule,  to  her  disadvantage. 

"  Then  all  this  nonsense  about  German  militarism. 
What  about  English  '  navalism  ^?  I  have  heard  it  said 
that  they  are  twin  brothers.  Perhaps !  If  so,  we 
should  add  that  militarism  is  the  hard-working,  the 
intelligent  brother,  while  navalism  is  the  adventurer, 
the  '  ne'er-do-well '  of  the  two.  When  I  say  '  ne'er-do- 
well,'  I  am  using  the  term  in  its  moral  sense  only,  of 
course.  From  the  adventurer's,  the  pirate's  point  of 
view,  the  British  fleet  has  done  quite  well.  Let  us  look 
at  the  record.  One  after  the  other,  it  has  destroyed 
the  Spanish  navy,  of  Elizabeth's  time ;  the  Dutch  navy ; 
then  the  French,  and,  finally,  the  Danish  navy,  which 
was  rendered  obsolete  in  1801.  And  now  they  are  try- 
ing to  destroy  ours.  If  they  should  succeed,  do  you 
know  whose  turn  it  would  be  next.''  The  American 
navy.  England  does  not  tolerate  any  close  second 
naval  power  in  the  world.     Militarism,  indeed!     They 


312  BEHIND  TPIE  GERMAN  VEIL 

scoff  at  our  '  Deutschland  iiber  Alles,'  but  what  about 
their  motto:  'Britannia  rules  the  waves'?  Is  there 
room  in  the  present  age  for  such  intolerable  arrogance? 

"  Do  you  realise  that  Germany  is  the  only  country 
that  has  not  been  at  war  for  forty-four  years?  Every 
other  European  nation  has.  England  had  the  atro- 
cious robber  war  of  the  Transvaal;  the  French  have 
fought  in  Morocco  and  Madagascar ;  America  with 
Spain ;  Russia  with  Japan ;  Italy  with  Turkey,  and  so 
on.  Our  Kaiser  could  have  found  many  times,  espe- 
cially during  the  last  ten  years,  not  merely  excuses,  but 
good  solid  reasons  to  draw  the  sword,  but  again  and 
again  he  gave  in,  preached  moderation,  for  the  benefit 
of  Germany  and  the  world  in  general.  But  there  is  a 
limit  to  all  things." 

Passing  on  to  the  next  subject,  Herr  von  Gwlnner 
grew  somewhat  excited.  He  rose,  and  in  an  almost 
melodramatic  voice  and  manner  exclaimed: 

"  But  the  greatest  crime  of  all,  the  most  dastardly 
act  in  the  history  of  the  world,  is  England's  plan  to 
starve  out  a  whole  nation.  Yes,  a  whole  nation  of 
women  and  children.  Can  you  think  of  anything  more 
criminal,  more  inhuman?  Tell  me,  what  do  neutral 
countries  think  of  that?" 

A  pause  in  his  eloquent  charge  gave  me  an  oppor- 
tunity of  asking:  "But,  Herr  von  Gwinner,  is  there 
any  difference  between  a  fortified  town  and  a  fortified 
country?  What  happened  in  Paris,  for  instance,  dur- 
ing the  Franco-Prussian  war?  There  were  many 
women  and  children  starving  to  death  then.  Isn't  Ger- 
many, after  all,  one  great  fortress?" 

But  it  is  hard  to  checkmate  a  man  of  Herr  von 
Gwinner's  mettle. 

*'  Yes,  certainly  there  is  a  difference,"  he  gravely 
replied  without  a  moment's  hesitation.     "  In  a  fortified 


One   of   the    larffei^-f   Zeppelins   leaving   its   shed   at   Marienthal  near 
Berlin.     Note  size  of  men  on   top 


A     uioilel    Knipp    (/ini.    njiioU    iiipe    of    the    ', t    cm.    Howitzer.      This 
model  in  in   the  author's  potisession 


ARTHUR  VON  GWINNER  313 

town  the  women  and  children  and  other  non-combatants 
are  given  ample  opportunity  to  leave  the  city.  If  they 
remain,  they  do  so  of  their  own  free  will  and  at  their 
own  risk.  It  is  impossible  for  the  women  and  children 
of  a  whole  nation  to  leave  the  country.  No,  a  thou- 
sand times  No,  sir,  there  never  has  been  in  the  history 
of  the  world  such  a  vile,  low  attempt  at  murder  as  the 
English  plan  of  starving  Germany  into  submission." 

Many  answers  and  many  questions  ran  through  my 
mind.  I  wanted  to  ask  about  the  women  and  children 
murdered  at  Hartlepool,  Scarborough,  Whitby,  on  the 
Liisitania;  I  wanted  to  inquire  about  the  innocent 
women  and  children  Zejjpelin  victims,  but  I  was  afraid 
I  would  stop  Herr  von  Gwinner's  flow  of  rhetoric. 

He  continued :  "  But  this  country  cannot  be  starved 
out,  and,  as  our  Chancellor  said,  '  Germany  can  never 
be  destroyed.'  The  English  '  gentlemen  '  are  not  going 
to  turn  this  country  into  one  large  '  concentration 
camp  '  so  familiar  to  us  since  the  days  of  the  Boer 
War." 

Somehow  when  he  said,  "  Germany  can  never  be  de- 
stroyed," his  words  lacked  the  conviction  which  had 
been  in  most  of  his  speech.  He  impressed  one  like  a 
man  fighting  with  his  back  against  the  wall. 

The  force  of  his  vituperative  fire  in  denouncing  Eng- 
land had  soon  spent  itself,  and  presently,  mopping  his 
eyebrows  and  forehead  with  a  coloured  handkerchief, 
he  sat  down  again  and  returned  to  the  subject  of  mili- 
tarism. 

"  What  is  militarism  ?  "  he  asked,  and  then  proceeded 
to  answer  the  question  himself:  *' German  militarism 
is  nothing  else  but  the  German  spirit,  love  of  country, 
sacrifice.  Militarism  is  only  another  word  for  '  hero- 
ism.' It  means  the  upholding  of  tlie  manly  qualities  of 
courage  and  obedience,  it  represents  the  virtues  of  a 


314*  BEHIND  THE  GERMAN  VEIL 

free  people.  During  the  last  ten  years  our  annual  ex- 
penses for  this  '  frightful  militarism  '  have  been  about 
900  million  marks"  ($225,000,000),  "while  for  social 
works  alone,  our  expenses  are  over  a  thousand  million 
marks  yearly"  ($250,000,000). 

Changing  the  subject  once  more,  Herr  von  Gwinner 
spoke  of  conditions  in  the  occupied  territories  of  France 
and  Belgium.  "  Our  soldiers  in  France  live  in  perfect 
harmony  with  the  population.  Our  artillery  horses  as- 
sist the  farmers  in  working  their  fields,  and  many  French 
people  have  expressed  the  opinion  that  their  part  of 
the  country  was  never  better  managed  before.  I  had  a 
letter  recently  from  my  farm  superintendent,  who  is  in 
France,  and  he  assures  me  that  the  people  with  whom 
he  is  living  are  looking  after  him  with  kindness  and 
willingness.  He  refers  to  them  as  '  Papa '  and 
*  Maman.'  He  asked  me  whether  I  could  not  send  them 
some  pigs  from  my  farm." 

Of  course,  there  were  frequent  interruptions.  Sev- 
eral times  his  secretary  came  in  with  a  card  or  a  memo- 
randum, and  invariably  the  reply  was  "  Heute  nicht  " 
("  Not  to-day  ").  Once  or  twice  a  clerk  came  in  with 
some  letters  for  him  to  sign.  He  read  them  through 
slowly  and  carefully  before  affixing  his  signature.  On 
one  of  them  he  made  several  corrections.  Then  he  took 
a  red  pencil,  drew  it  through  the  letter,  and  then,  to 
make  assurance  doubly  sure,  tore  it  nearly  across.  Not 
a  word  passed  between  him  and  the  employe. 

I  had  brought  about  fifty  pounds  in  gold  and  asked 
Herr  von  Gwinner  to  change  it  for  me.  How  his  eyes 
lit  up  when  he  saw  it.  Oh,  let  me  hasten  to  add,  not 
with  that  ugly  expression  most  often  met  at  the  gam- 
bling tables  in  Monte  Carlo,  etc,     Noj  it  was  something 


ARTHUR  VON  GWINNER  315 

quite  different,  a  great  deal  more  pleasant.  How  shall 
I  describe  it?  His  face  showed  satisfaction,  the  smile 
of  the  connoisseur,  but  of  the  collector  who  collects  for 
others.  I  think  it  was  the  smile  of  satisfaction  of 
doing  something  for  the  Fatherland  that  showed  in  his 
face.  He  wrote  down  the  amount,  rang  a  bell,  and  in- 
structed the  clerk  to  exchange  the  money  at  "  best  " 
rates  and  to  bring  new  bills. 

There  were  various  of  these  little  interludes.  He 
sent  for  and  presented  me  with  a  number  of  annual  re- 
ports of  the  bank ;  several  books  written  by  Helfferich, 
one  of  them  dealing  with  the  German  war  loans,  another 
with  "  Germany's  Economic  Progress,"  all  of  which  he 
hoped  I  would  study ;  after  which  he  assured  me  I  would 
know  a  great  deal  more  about  Germany.  "  You  will 
find,"  he  explained,  "  more  reliable  information  in  those 
books  than  you  could  anywhere  else." 

Looking  back  now  upon  those  long  talks  with  von 
Gwinner,  it  occurs  to  me  how  stupid  I  was  not  to  have 
asked  him  to  autograph  one  of  the  books  he  gave  me. 
Von  Gwinner's  signature!  It  would  have  been  a  valu- 
able souvenir. 

To  return  to  the  first  interview. 

"  Has  Germany  any  intention  of  annexing  the  for- 
eign territory  she  now  occupies.''  "  was  one  of  my  next 
questions.  (How  varied  the  answers  have  been  to  that 
oft-repeated  query  of  mine!) 

"  That  is  a  question  which  cannot  be  answered  at 
present,"  he  slowly  replied ;  "  but  if  ever  in  the  history 
of  the  world  a  country  had  a  right  to  keep  what  it  had 
gained,  I  think  Germany  has.  Every  foot  of  territory 
she  occupies  has  been  bought  with  the  life  blood  of  her 
manhood.  We  were  attacked  on  all  sides.  V^'^c  not 
only  made  a  wonderful  defence,  but  succeeded  in  keep- 


316  BEHIND  THE  GERMAN  VEIL 

ing  the  fighting  on  the  enemy's  ground.  That  is  some- 
thing for  which  even  we  Germans  did  not  dare  hope. 
Whatever  form  it  will  take,  territory  in  Europe,  outside 
of  it,  or  an  indemnity,  our  enemies  will  be  made  to  pay 
dearly  for  their  baseless,  murderous  attack  on  our 
country." 

"  And  what  if  Germany  should  lose.''  " 

"  Then,"  and  his  words  came  slowly  and  carefully, 
while  his  voice  once  more  grew  grave,  "  if  our  enemies 
should  have  their  way,  and  the  German  Empire  be  dis- 
integrated, the  army  disbanded,  this  country  would  be- 
come once  more,  as  was  the  case  in  Napoleonic  days, 
the  cockpit  of  Europe.  One  war  would  follow  another. 
The  Russians  would  try  to  push  further  west,  and  Eng- 
land, with  whatever  Allies  she  might  be  able  to  gather 
round  her,  would  be  involved  in  a  long  struggle  to  hold 
the  Cossacks  back.  America,  too,  would  suffer,  and  the 
day  will  come  when  she  may  be  grateful  for  Germany's 
support  against  her  growing  enemy  —  Japan." 

While  always  speaking  in  moderation,  von  Gwinner 
plainly  showed  that  he  was  far  from  satisfied  with  Ger- 
many's system  of  government.  He  has  no  use  for  the 
average  German  diplomat. 

"  But  then,  you  see,"  he  said  to  me  one  day,  and  his 
face  was  gleaming  with  that  soft,  genial  smile  of  his,  as 
if  he  were  proud  of  the  statement  he  was  going  to 
make,  "  we  Germans  are  not  diplomats.  We  are  too 
open,  too  frank,  too  honest.  Hitherto  our  diplomatic 
positions  have  been  practically  the  sole  prerogative  of 
our  old  families,  our  Junker  class.  All  this  is  going 
to  change.  The  business  man  is  gradually  coming  into 
his  own.  He  is  already  beginning  to  play  a  far  more 
active  and  prominent  part  in  the  political  affairs  of  the 
nation.  This  war  has  proved  that  business  men  are 
needed  just  as  much  as  Generals  and  Field-Marshals," 


ARTHUR  VON  GWINNER  317 

(Herr   von    Gwinner    did   not   mention    "Admirals.") 

"  Look  at  my  pupil  Helfferich,  Secretary  of  the 
Treasury  to-day.^  I  made  him.  He  started  here  in 
my  bank.  Then  there  is  Rathenau,  chief  of  the  most 
important  office  in  Germany  to-day,  the  Raw  Material 
Department  of  the  War  Office.^  And  so  I  could  cite 
several  other  examples  to  show  that  a  new  era  is  dawn- 
ing. And  that  applies  not  only  to  Germany  but  to  the 
whole  world." 

With  an  American  friend  of  mine,  a  prominent  busi- 
ness man,  not  a  journalist,  Herr  von  Gwinner  was  very 
outspoken  on  the  subject  of  the  position  of  the  business 
man  in  Germany.  My  friend  protested  one  day,  saying 
that  in  the  last  ten  years  the  Kaiser  seemed  to  have  as- 
siduously cultivated  his  princes  of  industry.  "  Pah !  " 
von  Gwinner  replied,  "  as  far  as  politics  and  Govern- 
ment offices  were  concerned,  they  were  merely  titled 
head-clerks,  or  advisory  experts.  They  were  without 
any  vote  or  power." 

He  blamed  the  Kaiser  for  the  condition  of  Germany's 
diplomatic  service,  saying  that  it  was  he  who  was  re- 
sponsible that  diplomatic  honours  have  been  accorded 
more  with  a  view  to  birth  than  on  account  of  merit. 
Von  Gwinner  hates  diplomats,  in  fact,  he  loathes  the 
whole  Foreign  Office,  and  is  reported  to  have  said  — 
again  my  American  friend  is  my  informant  —  that 
"  but  for  the  idiots  in  the  Wilhelmstrasse  this  war  would 
never  have  been." 

It  is,  of  course,  well  known  that  the  Kaiser  has  again 
and  again  tried  to  persuade  Herr  von  Gwinner  to  take 
a  seat  in  the  Cabinet,  but  he  has  steadfastly  refused. 

"  Mich  immerfort  hcrum  qualen  mit  den  Gross- 
maiilern  im  Reichstage,  nah  danke  schon  "  ("  To  wran- 

1  Now  Minister  of  the  Interior. 

2  Resigned. 


318  BEHIND  THE  GERMAN  VEIL 

gle,  to  be  pestered  continually  with  the  *  big  shouters ' 
of  the  Reichstag,  no  thanks"),  is  what  he  confided  to 
his  friends.  And  so  von  Gwinner  remains  at  the  helm 
of  the  Deutsche  Bank,  and  evidently  also  finds  time  for 
his  hobbies. 

Von  Gwinner,  of  course,  is  the  promoter  of  the  Bag- 
dad RaiU'oad  scheme.  It  was  not  easy  to  get  him  to 
talk  on  the  subject,  though  it  has  been  for  years  the 
very  apple  of  his  eye.  Now  and  then  he  would  venture 
a  prediction,  make  a  statement  or  express  an  opinion 
or  a  hope  about  the  future  of  his  foster-child.  I  shall 
deal  with  those  parts  of  my  interview  in  my  chapter  on 
the  German-Turkish  Alliance.-^ 

"  How  long  do  you  think  this  war  is  going  to  last?  " 
I  asked  him  one  day. 

The  answer  came  at  once.  No  question  can  baffle 
Herr  von  Gwinner. 

"  The  war  will  last  until  Germany  can  conclude  an 
honourable  peace  —  i.e.,  on  such  terms  as  will  hold  the 
necessary  guarantees  against  interference  and  wanton 
attack  from  backward  and  jealous  nations.  Then  she 
will  once  more  continue  to  fulfil  her  peaceful  mission, 
the  development  of  her  commerce,  and  the  improvement 
of  the  social  conditions  of  her  labourers." 

He  declined  to  specify  the  guarantees. 

Of  course,  he  dwelt  at  length  on  Germany's  sound 
financial  condition,  and  tried  to  prove  it  to  me  by  books 
and  statistics.  Not  being  very  strong  on  financial  sub- 
jects, I  prefer  not  to  go  into  this  part  of  his  conversa^ 
tion.     The  essence  of  it  was : 

1  Chapter  L. 


ARTHUR  VON  GWINNER  319 

«  Wir  halten  durch  "  ("  We'll  stick  it  out  "). 

I  liked  Herr  von  Gwinner.  He  was  one  of  the  few 
Germans  I  met  who  I  think  was  absolutely  honest  with 
me. 


CHAPTER  XLI 

DR.    WALTHER    RATHENAU 

TT^HE  man  who  keeps  Germany  eating  and  shoot- 
M,  ing" — thus  was  Dr.  Walther  Rathenau,  the 
son  of  the  founder  of  the  A.  E.  G.  (Allgemeine  Elec- 
tricitats  Gesellschaft),  described  to  me.  Can  you 
imagine  a  more  tantalising  definition  to  a  journalist  in 
search  of  information? 

Dr.  Rathenau  occupied  until  a  short  Vime  ago  the 
very  responsible  position  of  Chief  of  the  Raw  Material 
Department  at  the  War  Office.  I  am,  of  course,  unable 
to  say  what  is  at  the  bottom  of  his  retirement,  but  I 
should  not  be  surprised  if  his  liberal  views,  his  lack  of 
the  "  Gott  strafe  England  "  cult  had  something  to  do 
with  it. 

Rathenau  is  a  Jew,  of  about  forty-three  to  forty- 
four  years  of  age,  I  should  judge.  He  wears  a  short, 
pointed  beard,  such  as  are  popular  in  the  navy,  and  he 
is  very  tall.  His  manner  was  very  un-German,  it  was 
pleasant  and  polished.  He  is  a  many-sided  man.  In 
the  first  place,  of  course,  he  is  a  thorough  practical 
engineer.  Until  shortly  before  the  war  he  was  at  the 
head  of  one  of  the  largest  German  banks,  and  finally 
he  is  an  author  of  no  mean  literary  talent.  He  has 
written  several  works  dealing  with  Men,  Thoughts  and 
Things  in  Germany  before  the  war.  Best  known  are 
his  "Reflections"  and  "Criticism  of  the  Era."  He 
has  travelled  all  over  the  world,  and  speaks  French, 
English  and  Italian  like  a  native. 

This  was  the  man  to  whom  young  Hindenburg 
(nephew  of  the  General),  a  personal  friend  of  his,  had 

820 


DR.  WALTER  RATHENAU  3S1 

given  me  a  warm  letter  of  introduction.  It  procured 
me  an  audience  with  the  big  man  at  once.  It  was  one 
of  my  first  in  Germany. 

Let  me  state  right  here  that  it  was  a  pleasure  to 
converse  with  Dr.  Rathenau.  In  both  interviews  I  had 
with  him,  the  first  one  lasting  about  an  hour,  there  was 
not  one  jarring  note.  '  His  expressions,  while  showing 
confidence  and  hope,  lacked  that  bravado,  "  Deutsch- 
land-iiber-Alles  "  and  "  England-the-guilty,  England- 
the-hated  "  spirit  which  only  too  frequently  was  found 
in  my  intercourse  with  Berlin  officials. 

Most  of  the  conversation  was  carried  on  in  English. 
While  starting  with  the  usual  polite  preliminaries,  I 
offered  him  a  cigarette.  He  looked  at  the  label,  smiled, 
and  with  mock  seriousness  remarked :  "  Egyptian, 
h'm;  I  should  not  smoke  those,  should  I?  But  then  I 
have  a  weakness  for  certain  things,  though  they  are  the 
enemy's  products.  Try  one  of  mine,"  and  he  offered 
me  a  Russian  cigarette  in  exchange. 

Of  course,  the  subjects  nearest  to  my  heart  were 
copper,  rubber  and  petrol.  I  had  found  in  previous 
conversations  —  or  I  should  rather  say,  "  attempted 
conversations,"  because  I  never  got  very  far  on  these 
subjects  —  that  they  were  extremely  delicate  topics, 
and  it  was  pointed  out  to  me  on  different  occasions  that 
it  would  be  more  "  tactful "  not  to  touch  on  them. 
The  moment  you  bring  up  the  subject  of  Germany's 
supply  of  raw  material  — "  Yes,  it's  a  very  nice  day, 
isn't  it?  "  or,  as  the  case  might  be,  "  Isn't  this  wretched 
weather?"  That,  as  a  rule,  was  all  the  satisfaction 
you  got  except  with  those  people  who  thought  they 
might  be  able  to  make  3'ou  believe  in  a  little  fairy  tale 
about  "  Germany,  the  Land  of  Plenty." 

Dr.  Rathenau  looked  at  me  out  of  the  corner  of  his 
eyes,  then  got  up,  and  from  a  drawer  of  his  desk  —  the 


BEHIND  THE  GER^IAN  VEIL 

interview  took  place  at  the  War  Office  —  took  out  a 
fair-sized  book,  and,  holding  it  up  before  my  eyes,  gave 
me  the  opportunity  to  see  something  about  "  Rohstoffe 
in  Deutschland "  ("Raw  Material  in  Germany"). 
My  heart  began  to  beat  faster.  "  At  last,"  I  thought, 
"  we'll  get  some  real  authentic  figures ;  fine  story." 
But  the  truth  of  the  saying  that  there  is  many  a  slip 
'twixt  a  story  in  the  War  Office  and  the  same  in  the 
paper  came  true  once  more. 

"  This,"  said  Dr.  Rathenau,  while  patting  the 
wretched  volume  tantalisingly,  "  contains  everything 
about  every  grain  of  raw  material  in  this  country ;  the 
means  and  methods  of  producing  and  obtaining  more  — 
in  short,  all  you  would  like  to  know  about  it ;  but  .  .  . 
those  are  deep  *  secrets  of  State,'  and  therefore  I  can- 
not show  it  to  you  any  further  than  on  its  outside." 
That  was  almost  worse  than  the  usual  replies  I  had 
received.  No  amount  of  diplomacy,  arguments, 
wheedling,  or  promises,  could  persuade  the  polite  doc- 
tor to  part  with  the  volume,  not  even  for  a  minute. 

"  All  I  can  tell  you,"  he  said,  "  is  that  if  our  enemies 
are  waiting  till  we  are  starved  out,  till  we  are  short  of 
copper,  and  till  our  guns  are  silent  —  well,  they'll  have 
a  jolly  long  time  to  wait."  Then  the  subject  was 
changed. 

"  Why  don't  you  go  and  take  some  of  the  menus  in 
our  large  restaurants,  have  photographic  copies  made 
of  them,  and  verified  by  your  consuls?  Send  those 
abroad,  and  let  people  judge  for  themselves  how  badly 
we  are  starving." 

"  But,  as  you  were  saying,  copper  .  .  ." 

"  You  are  very  insistent,"  he  fired  back,  "  but  I  will 
try  to  help  you  a  little,  and  I  assure  you  you  are  the 
first  journalist  with  whom  I  have  discussed  this  subject 
at  all.     If  you  take  the  yearly  statistics  you  will  find 


DR.  WALTER  RATHENAU  323 

that  Germany  during  the  last  five  years  has  imported 
an  average  of  over  200,000  tons  of  copper  a  year. 
With  our  own  productions  at  Mansfeld  our  total 
supply  amounted  to  close  on  250,000  tons.  Our  ex- 
ports of  electrical  goods,  machinery,  etc.,  in  which  cop- 
per was  used,  did  not  exceed  100,000  tons  a  year,  so 
nearly  150,000  tons  of  copper  have  remained  in  this 
country. 

"  Much  of  this  has  been  combined  with  other  metals, 
but  we  have  experimented,  and  our  chemical  develop- 
ments have  reached  such  a  pitch  of  perfection,  that  over 
seventy-five  per  cent,  can  be  reduced  again  to  pure 
copper.  For  one  thing,  we  have  thousands  of  tons  of 
telegraph  wires  for  which  we  can  substitute  lines  of 
other  metal.  Then  go  into  some  of  the  German  kitch- 
ens. There  is  hardly  a  house  where  you  will  not  find 
a  certain  number  of  copper  pots  and  pans  in  their 
shining  glory, 

"  Look  at  the  amount  of  copper  that  is  used  in  every 
house,  every  hotel,  every  building.  Our  mines  at  Mans- 
feld have  turned  out  close  on  30,000  tons  a  year,  but 
we  have  been  able  to  increase  the  output  by  at  least 
fifty  per  cent.,  to  45,000  tons.  Besides,  there  are  one 
or  two  sources  our  enemies  have  not  figured  on.  One 
of  them  is  the  wonderful  state  of  development  our 
chemistry  has  reached.  The  best  brains  in  the  land 
are  working  on  a  new  product,  that  may  give  the  world 
in  general,  and  our  enemies  in  particular,  another  sur- 
prise, as  did  our  42's  and  our  submarines.  No,  we  are 
not  at  the  end  of  our  tether  yet,  not  by  a  long  way. 
Germany  cannot  be  destroyed." 

This  is,  nearly  verbatim,  Dr.  Rathenau's  view  on  the 
subject  of  copper.  I  must  admit  that  his  words  car- 
ried conviction.  As  I  said  before,  his  speech  was 
marked  by  an  entire  absence  of  that  spirit  of  hatred 


QU  BEHIND  THE  GERMAN  VEIL 

which  blinded  so  many  views  and  spoiled  so  many  argu- 
ments to  which  I  have  listened. 

Dr.  Rathenau  expressed  as  his  opinion  that  out  of 
this  war  may,  perhaps  in  the  not  too  distant  future, 
arise  a  "  United  States  of  Europe."  "  That  is  what 
we  need,  that  is  what  we  should  have,"  he  continued. 
"  What  is  at  the  bottom  of  this  war?  I  am  leaving  out 
all  considerations  of  neutrahty,  of  diplomatic  bungling, 
etc.     It's  the  tariff. 

"  Each  country  tried  to  build  a  tariff  wall  around 
itself,  and  to  that  you  can  trace  all  our  troubles.  In- 
stead of  manufacturing  everything  in  one  country,  we 
should  let  each  country  specialise  in  those  goods  which 
it  can  best  and  most  cheaply  supply.  In  these  '  United 
States  of  Europe,'  mark  well,  economically  speaking, 
France  might  be  left  to  supply  all  the  silk  for  the  com- 
bined countries,  Austria  glass,  England  cloth  and  ships, 
and  Germany  machinery  and  chemicals.  America,  for 
her  part,  might  specialise  in  supplying  the  cotton  of 
the  world. 

**  From  the  economic  point  of  view,  the  various  coun- 
tries to-day  are  still  in  the  stage  occupied  by  the  indi- 
vidual family  during  the  Middle  Ages.  Then  they  used 
to  make  everything  at  home  —  clothes,  shoes,  furniture, 
bread,  etc.  Soon  people  learned  that  they  could  live 
better  and  more  cheaply  by  letting  the  tailor,  the  boot- 
maker, the  carpenter,  specialise  on  his  particular  busi- 
ness. That  is  what  the  various  nations  must  learn  to 
see." 

I  asked  the  doctor  whether  he  did  not  think  that  the 
financial  task  involved  in  the  buying-up  and  transfer 
of  the  huge  business  interests  to  the  various  countries 
where  they  would  be  specialised  would  present  insur- 
inountable  difficulties. 

"  No,"  came  without  hesitation ;  "  the  money  which 


DR.  WALTER  RATHENAU  525 

is  spent  now  in  one  month  by  the  fighting  nations  would 
be  sufficient  to  buy  up  almost  all  the  factories  in  any 
one  of  the  individual  countries  and  transfer  them  to  an- 
other. This  war  is  costing  Germany  one  milliard  marks 
($250,000,000)  a  month,  directly,  and  two  and  a  half 
times  that  amount  indirectly. 

"  But  then,  terrible  as  this  war  is,  it  will  have  its 
beneficial  results  as  well.  People  in  Europe  were  begin- 
ning to  live  too  easily,  too  luxuriously ;  we  were  begin- 
ning to  be  threatened  with  stagnation.  A  man  who  has 
eaten  his  fill  is  no  longer  creative.  He  wants  to  sleep, 
not  work.  And  after  the  war.^  Well,  we'll  all  have  to 
live  together  again.  We  all  need  one  another,  so  what 
is  the  use  of  nursing  this  spirit  of  hatred  and  rancour.'*  " 

The  allotted  hour  was  up  before  I  knew  it,  and  when 
several  other  matters  demanded  Dr.  Rathenau's  atten- 
tion I  took  my  leave,  without  having  heard  anything  on 
the  subject  of  petrol  and  rubber.  Dr.  Rathenau's 
views  and  e'xplanations  on  the  subject  of  copper  were 
subsequently  confirmed  to  me  from  several  other  sources. 
One  of  these  informants  is  a  man  who  is  very  close  to 
the  Krupp  concern,  and  another  an  American  who  has 
had  business^  dealings  with  several  large  German  firms 
which  have  used  American  copper  for  many  years  past. 

Krupps'  man  told  me  quite  frankly  that  it  was  not 
copper  they  worried  about,  but  the  rubber  and  petrol 
supply.  They  are  manufacturing  a  substitute  for 
petrol,  now  called  "  Benzol,"  a  by-product  of  coke,  but 
it  also  requires  other  ingredients,  and  those  seem  to  be 
getting  short.  As  for  rubber,  many  professors  of 
chemistry  have  been  working  for  months  trying  to  find 
a  substitute  for  it.  Up  to  a  few  weeks  ago  their  efforts 
do  not  appear  to  have  been  successful. 

Already  early  in  1915  every  private  car  and  most  of 


326  BEHIND  THE  GERMAN  VEIL 

the  taxis  had  disappeared  from  Berlin  streets.  After 
eleven  at  night  it  is  very  difficult  to  get  a  conveyance 
of  any  kind. 

The  same  informant,  who  must  remain  anonymous, 
said  to  me  shortly  before  I  left  Germany :  "  If  any- 
thing is  going  to  break  our  neck,  it  will  be  rubber  and 
petrol."  He  was  one  of  the  few  men  in  Germany  who 
were  not  out-and-out  optimists  on  the  outcome  of  the 
war,  and  he  was,  which  is  still  more  rare,  honest  enough 
frankly  to  admit  it. 

From  a  fourth  source,  and  I  am  repeating  here  only 
those  views  that  I  have  tested  and  found  as  nearly  accu- 
rate as  it  is  possible  to  be  in  these  matters,  I  have 
received  the  following  calculation.  It  came  from  an 
artillery  officer  at  present  on  the  General  Staff  in  Ber- 
lin, but  for  a  time  at  the  front  in  France,  and  formerly 
at  the  Krupp  works  at  Essen. 

"  All  calculations  as  to  the  amount  of  ammunition  to 
be  used  in  warfare  have  turned  out  to  be  many  hundred 
per  cent,  below  the  actual  expenditure.  It  has  been 
estimated  that  the  number  of  cartridges  used  by  Ger- 
many and  our  Ally  during  the  last  six  months  has  aver- 
aged nearly  30,000,000  rounds  a  day.  Our  artillery 
has  used  an  average  of  nearly  150,000  shells  a  day. 
Now  let  us  see  how  much  copper  we  need  for  that.  The 
rifle  cartridges  would  represent  about  300  tons  of  brass 
a  day,  the  shells  about  100  tons,  a  daily  total  of  about 
400  tons. 

"  This  amount  of  brass  represents,  according  to  its 
metallurgical  composition,  about  300  tons  of  copper. 
Multiply  that  by  365,  that  brings  the  amount  of  cop- 
per needed  per  annum  to  109,500  tons  for  ammunition 
only.  We  produce,  including  Mansfeld  and  some  Aus- 
trian mines,  close  on  50,000  tons  a  year.     We  have  an 


DR.  WALTER  RATHENAU  327 

enormous  store  of  copper  in  the  country  which  has  ac- 
cumulated for  a  great  number  of  years  "  (see  official 
figures  of  imports  and  exports  quoted  above)  ;  "  so 
when  the  Allies  think  that  they  are  going  to  bring  us  to 
our  knees  on  account  of  the  copper  scarcity  they  are 
making  a  big  miscalculation.  And  I  know  what  I  am 
talking  about." 

This  same  officer  told  me  that  during  November  and 
early  December,  1914,  there  was  a  great  shortage  of 
artillery  ammunition  in  the  West,  and  that  an  offensive 
movement  of  the  Allies  was  greatly  feared  then.  "  It 
was  said  on  several  occasions  that  the  Allies  had  silenced 
the  German  guns,  but  the  truth  of  the  matter  was  that 
we  had  to  economise  our  ammunition.  It  is  here  that 
America's  assistance  is  of  such  importance.  The  Allies 
could  never  have  manufactured  their  own  supplies, 
neither  of  arms  nor  of  ammunition." 

The  feeling  in  Berlin  is  growing  stronger  every  day 
against  the  so-called  "  double-faced  neutrality "  of 
America.  "  Sending  strong  notes  to  Germany,  and 
weak  ones  to  England,  but  plenty  of  strong  ammuni- 
tion," is  the  general  comment. 

Nobody  was  willing  to  say  anything  about  the  smug- 
gling of  copper  into  German^',  but  I  know  that  quite  a 
good  deal  came  from  America  through  Sweden,  and 
up  to  May,  1915,  also  through  Italy,  in  the  latter  case 
via  Barcelona.  Several  American  firms,  amongst  them 
the  "American  Smelting  and  Refining  Trust"  (Gug- 
genheim's), were  approached  for  deliveries  of  copper, 
and  certain  guarantees,  even  of  submarine  protection, 
were  offered,  but  most  of  the  negotiations  have  been 
unsuccessful. 

In  1915  copper  was  worth  in  Germany  nearly  two 
marks  (50  cents)  a  pound. 


CHAPTER  XLII 

AMBASSADOR    COUNT    VON    BERNSTORFF 

AMONGST  my  newspaper  connections  in  New  York 
(I  am  speaking  about  the  month  of  August  and 
the  first  half  of  Sci^tember,  1914)  was  one  paper  which, 
ah'eady  in  those  early  days,  showed  somewhat  pro- 
German  leanings.  (It  has  since  succumbed  entirely  to 
the  German  cause.) 

Of  course,  this  gave  me  the  entree  to  the  German  Am- 
bassador, Count  von  Bernstorff,  practically  at  all  hours 
of  the  day  or  night. 

New  York  is  the  strategical  publicity  centre  of  the 
United  States,  so,  after  von  Bernstorff' s  return  from 
Europe  in  the  third  week  of  August,  he  left  his  charge 
d'affaires  in  Washington,  while  he  moved  to  New  York 
and  established  his  headquarters  at  the  Ritz-Carlton 
Hotel.  I  may  note  here  that  he  usually  spent  his  week- 
ends at  *'  Rhinebeck,"  the  Hudson  River  country  place 
of  the  German-American  banker,  James  Speyer. 

I  have  held  many  an  interesting  conversation  with 
von  Bernstorff,  and  to  meet  him  from  day  to  day  as  the 
war  progressed,  to  watch  his  gradual  change  in  de- 
meanour, was  a  study  in  contrasts  that  I  would  have 
been  sorry  to  miss. 

During  the  first  days  after  his  return  from  Europe 

he  looked  very  gloomy,  and  bore  that  gritting  his  teeth 

sort  of  expression  of  "  We  must  hope  for  the  best." 

But  as  the  Germans  gradually  advanced  towards  Paris, 

and  when  finally  von  Kluck  was  reported  to  be  within 

striking  distance  of  the  outer  forts,  up  went  his  spirits, 

and  his  whole  physiognomv  underwent  an  entire  change. 

■^328 


AMBASSADOR  COUNT  VON  BERNSTORFF     329 

BernstorfF  occupied  a  regal  suite  of  apartments,  but 
his  drawing-room  rather  reminded  one  of  a  Divisional 
Headquarters.  Numerous  maps,  books,  flags,  were 
spread  out  on  a  large  table,  and  Bernstorff  could  usually 
be  found  bending  over  them.  A  dozen,  nay,  a  hundred, 
times  in  those  days  he  explained  to  me  von  Kluck  and 
von  Billow's  march  on  Paris.  Well  do  I  remember  his 
theory  of  the  German  "  pincers."  Verdun  was  sup- 
posed to  be  the  central  point.  One  arm  of  the 
"  pincers  "  stretched  from  Verdun  down  to  Belfort,  the 
other  one  from  Verdun  to  Paris,  and  slowly  but  surely 
.   .  .  but  wait,  I  am  digressing. 

Either  the  80th  or  31st  day  of  August,  before  I  had 
hardly  entered  his  room,  he  shouted  to  me :  "  I'll  give 
them  another  week."  I  did  not  know-  what  he  meant  at 
first,  and  asked:  "Whom  and  what?"  "Why,  to 
enter  Paris,  of  course,"  he  explained.  "  Look  here,  you 
see,  von  Kluck  is  right  there  at  Creil  and  in  close  touch 
with  von  Biilow  on  his  left.  Well,  now  they  are  going 
to  .  .  ."  and  then  for  the  hundredth  time  I  heard  the 
story  of  what  they  were  going  to  do,  but  .  .  .  never 
did.' 

That  same  day  I  went  down  into  the  city  and  called 
on  the  German  Consul-General,  Dr.  Horst  Falck. 

He  had  not  been  a  particularly  pleasant  subject  for 
interviews,  but  that  day  he  was  almost  amiable.  He 
strode  up  and  down  his  office,  thumbs  inserted  in  his 
waistcoat  arm-holes,  and  turning  his  head  from  left  to 
right,  forwards  and  sideways,  he  laughed :  "  Ah,  my 
dear  fellow^,  it's  all  over  but  the  shouting."  I  told  him 
what  the  Ambassador  had  said  about  giving  von  Kluck 
a  week.  "  A  week .''  "  he  repeated,  "  a  week  ?  Why, 
I'll  bet  you  dollars  to  doughnuts  that  he'll  march  down 
the  Champs  Elysees  in  less  than  four  days."  (And  I 
did  not  take  him  on!)     "  The  French  are  not  going  to 


330  BEHIND  THE  GERMAN  VEIL 

defend  Paris.  I  have  even  received  confidential  infor- 
mation that  they  are  ready  to  discuss  peace  terms. 
Ha,  ha !  it's  1870-71  all  over  again,  only  this  time  a  bit 
quicker  work.  Ha,  ha ! "  And  even  outside  in  the 
noisy  hall,  while  waiting  for  the  lift,  I  could  hear  the 
exuberant  doctor's  "  Ha  !  ha !  " 

He  was  doing  the  shouting  a  bit  too  early.  I  never 
saw  him  after  that  (but  that  was  not  my  fault!). 

To  return  to  Bernstorff.  When  von  Kluck  did  not 
"  take  "  Paris,  but  branched  off  to  the  southeast,  of 
course  Bernstorff  knew  "  exactly  "  the  why  and  the 
wherefore. 

"  Oh,  don't  you  worry  "  (I  didn't)  ;  "  postponed  is 
not  put  off."  (It  was  this  time,  though.)  "  I'll  tell 
you  exactly  what  he  is  going  to  do.  You  see,  the 
pincers  are  closing  in.  The  Crown  Prince  is  advancing 
west;  well,  von  Kluck  and  von  Billow  are  advancing 
east.     Now  don't  you  see  what  will  happen.'* " 

I  did  not,  and  said  so. 

"  Why,  man,  the  case  is  as  simple  as  A  B  C ;  it's  as 
clear  as  daylight.  They  can  take  Paris  any  day. 
They  are  first  going  to  crush  the  whole  French 
AND  British  armies  between  the  right  and  the  left 
German  wings.  They  are  simply  carrying  out  an 
encircling  movement." 

Oh,  of  course !  Then  I  saw !  All  the  same,  I  may  as 
well  admit  that  I  was  greatly  impressed  by  his  clear, 
and  often  convincing,  talk.  Things  looked  pretty  dark 
for  us  in  those  days. 

Shortly  after  Bernstorff's  return  from  Europe  he 
had  an  audience  with  Mr.  Bryan,  then  Secretary  of 
State.  Passing,  at  its  conclusion,  through  the  outer 
office,  he  was  just  about  to  enter  the  diplomatic  ante- 


AMBASSADOR  COUNT  VON  BERNSTORFF     331 

chamber,  when  he  stopped  and  inquired  of  "  Eddie,"  an 
old-time  State  Department  attache,  "Who  is  inside?" 
nodding  towards  the  waiting-room.  "  Nobody  but  the 
Dominican  Minister,"  repHed  Eddie. 

"  Let  me  see,"  mused  Bernstorff.  "  Oh,  that's  all 
right  then ;  I  am  not  yet  at  war  with  him." 

When  I  told  von  Bernstorff  that  I  was  going  to  Eu- 
rope, and  that  I  hoped  to  visit  the  various  war  zones, 
he  gave  me  an  introduction  to  the  Berlin  Foreign  Office, 
and  also  to  his  colleague  at  The  Hague  —  then  Herr 
von  Miiller  — "  in  case  I  should  have  difficulties  in  en- 
tering Germany."  I  never  had  an  opportunity  to  pre- 
sent Herr  von  Miiller's  letter,  as  was,  alas !  the  case  with 
several  other  valuable  German  introductions. 

BerQstorff's  last  words  to  me  were : 

"  Peace  will  only  come  through  German  victory." 


CHAPTER  XLIII 

M.\TTHIAS    ERZBERGER 
PRESS    MANIPULATOR    AND    ADVERTISING    EXPERT 

ENTER  Herr  Erzberger,  Leader  of  the  Centrum 
Party  in  the  Reichstag,  Chief  of  the  Press  Bureau, 
and  late  General  German  Press  Agent  and  Press  Manip- 
ulator in  Italy. 

He  is  one  of  the  most  influential  men  in  Germany  to- 
day, and  is  in  closest  touch  with  the  Emperor.  When 
one  day,  at  the  General  Staff,  I  produced  my  letter  of 
introduction  to  him,  one  of  the  Press  Majors  remarked: 
"  Oh,  that  is  all  you  will  need  in  Berlin.  He  is,  next 
to  the  Chancellor,  the  Kaiser's  most  intimate  adviser." 
That  statement  was  corroborated  many  times. 

On  meeting  Herr  Erzberger  you  would  never  think 
he  had  such  power.  His  appearance  is  far  from  pre- 
possessing. 

He  has  a  tendency  to  German  embonpoint,  a  red  face, 
and  large  fat  hands  with  podgy  fingers.  In  fact,  he  is 
a  typical  representative  of  the  German  middle  classes, 
who,  you  cannot  help  thinking,  would  look  more  suit- 
able clad  in  white  overalls,  with  a  large  butcher's  knife, 
than  in  frock-coat  and  bowler  hat,  carrying  a  bulky 
porte-feuille  under  his  arm.  Not  so  many  years  ago 
Erzberger  used  to  be  a  schoolmaster  in  an  insignificant 
Bavarian  village.  To-day  every  one  in  Germany  has 
to  reckon  with  him. 

My  meeting  with  the  "  famous  "  man  was  quite  spec- 
tacular. I  called  on  him,  to  present  my  letter  from 
Count  von  Hertling,  Bavarian  Minister  of  Foreign  Af- 
fairs, the  morning  after  his   return  from   one  of  hi§ 

332 


MATTHIAS  ERZBERGER  333 

periodical  trips  to  Italy.  He  was  in  a  great  flurry 
and  terribly  busy. 

"  Very  sorry,"  he  exclaimed,  while  running  about  his 
private  office  on  the  Koniggratzer  Strasse,  collecting  a 
number  of  important-looking  documents  and  various 
maps  of  Italy,  "  very  sorry,  indeed,  but  I  am  just  off 
to  the  Palace.     I  am  lunching  with  his  Majesty." 

"  I  see,"  I  gasped,  duly  impressed,  and  then  inquired : 
"  I  trust  you  are  bringing  him  good  news  from  Rome, 
from  your  Italian  ally?  " 

"  Certainly,  yes,  certainly,"  came  back  in  a  very 
offhand  manner  and  tone  of  voice,  "  as  good  as  can  be 
expected ;  nothing  to  worry  about.  Anyhow,  always 
remember  our  good  old  German  motto,"  and  pausing  in 
his  perambulations,  he  stopped  in  front  of  me  and  sol- 
emnly quoted :  "  We  Germans  fear  God,  but  nothing 
else  in  the  world." 

A  minute  later  he  was  off. 

Naturally  I  was  most  anxious  to  learn  something 
about  the  Kaiser's  views  on  the  situation,  so  in  the  aft- 
ernoon, after  Erzberger's  return  from  the  Imperial 
luncheon,  I  renewed  the  offensive.  However,  the  re- 
doubt was  a  bit  too  strong  to  be  carried  at  a  rush. 
But  let  us  see. 

The  first  attack  was  repulsed  with :  "  You  surely 
must  know  by  now,  Herr  Beaufort,  that  the  Emperor's 
words  are  sacred.  Whatever  he  wishes  to  tell  the  world, 
he  will  —  through  his  own  channels." 

I  was  properly  squashed,  and  apologised  for  my  stu- 
pidity. Evidently  I  had  run  plump  into  barbed  wire. 
I  acknowledged  my  pitiful  ignorance,  but  told  him  that 
I  had  been  given  to  understand  that  I  was  confronted  at 
this  moment  with  the  very  channel  of  which  he  was 
speaking!  Of  course,  even  I,  a  stranger  in  a  strange 
land,  had   heard   of  Herr   Erzberger's  influence,  his 


334?  BEHIND  THE  GERMAN  VEIL 

power,  etc.,  and  I  had  come  to  worship  at  his  shrine! 

"  Ahem !  hm !  " —  cough  — "  ahem !  what  was  it  you 
wanted  to  knoAv?  I  did  not  quite  understand,"  he 
asked.  "Oh,  about  Italy?  Well,  we  think  —  that  is, 
ahem !  /  think  —  that  Italy  has  it  in  her  power  to  finish 
this  terrible  war  without  any  further  bloodshed. 
It  would  not  cost  her  the  life  of  a  single  man." 

"  What  ?  "  I  could  not  help  exclaiming,  then  con- 
tinued :  "  Sorry,  Herr  Erzberger,  I  am  afraid  I  can- 
not quite  see  your  point.     Please  explain." 

"  That's  easily  done.  If  Italy  declared  war  on 
France  to-day,  and  marched  across  the  frontier,  throw- 
ing her  Avhole  army  at  the  French  right  flank  and  in  her 
back,  France  would  at  once  sue  for  peace;  there  is  no 
question  about  that,  we  know  it.  I  repeat  it  would  not 
cost  Italy  a  single  man." 

"  But,  Herr  Erzberger,  how  would  that  affect  the 
other  Allies,  England  and  Russia  ?  "  I  inquired,  uncon- 
vinced. 

"  It  would  affect  them  in  so  far  as  England  knows 
well  enough  that  her  army  is  no  match  for  ours.  The 
French  once  out  of  the  fighting,  would  enable  us  to  re- 
lease a  large  number  of  army  corps  for  our  Eastern 
front,  with  which  we  would  soon  enough  settle  Russia." 

I  am  sure  he  believed  every  word  he  said,  but  it  left 
me  unconvinced.  "  Suppose  Italy  should  join  the 
Allies,  what  would  be  the  effect  in  that  case.''  " 

Erzberger  thought  for  a  moment  and  then  answered: 
"  Quite  different  in  many  ways,  but  not  in  the  manner 
the  Allies  think.  Peace  would  only  be  possible  in  the 
alternative  I  have  shown  you.  If  Italy  joins  the  Allies, 
oh,  well,  we  are  fighting  seven  countries  already,  I  sup- 
pose we  could  manage  an  eighth."  After  a  moment's 
interval  he  continued,  but  his  voice  was  considerably 
more  serious :     "  But  what  do  you  think  would  be  the 


MATTHIAS  ERZBERGER  335 

world's  opinion  of  such  a  base  action  on  the  part  oi 
an  ally?  Is  there  any  word  that  could  express  such 
a  crime?  Where  would  Italy  find  another  ally? 
Where  would  she  find  a  country  that  would  trust  her 
once  this  war  is  settled?  What  excuse  could  she  give 
for  having  remained  a  member  of  the  Triple  Alliance? 
Italy  may  remain  neutral  and  save  her  honour,  but  she 
can  never,  by  virtue  of  the  Triple  Alliance,  assist  the 
enemy." 

From  these  remarks,  not  so  much  from  the  actual 
words  as  from  the  manner  in  which  they  were  spoken,  it 
was  easy  to  conclude  that  when  Herr  Erzberger  said 
that  Italian  affairs  were  "  as  good  as  might  be  ex- 
pected," he  was  making  a  dubious  sort  of  statement 
which  could  be  taken  in  different  ways. 

It  is  said  in  Berlin  that  it  took  the  Admiralty  many 
weeks  before  they  succeeded  in  persuading  the  Emperor 
to  sign  the  Submarine  Blockade  Bill.  Erzberger  is 
supposed  to  have  played  a  very  important  part  in  con- 
vincing the  Kaiser  of  its  necessity  and  advisability.  A 
day  or  two  before  the  blockade  came  into  effect,  I  called 
on  him,  and  asked  him  to  give  me  his  views.  "  Here 
they  are,"  he  said,  presenting  me  with  several  sheets  of 
closely  typewritten  matter.  "  You'll  find  all  I  have  to 
say  on  the  subject  here,  and  you  are  at  liberty  to  use 
it  as  you  like.  Better  put  it  in  the  form  of  an  inter- 
view." 

I  shall  not  quote  the  whole  article  because  it  con- 
tained many  things  which  have  been  expounded  only 
too  often  before.     The  substance  of  it  was : 

•  "  This  blockade  is  for  us  nothing  but  an  act  of  self- 
defence.  It  is  not  only  based  on  the  law  of  self-preser- 
vation, but  we  are  also  forced  into  it  by  the  recent 
English  Admiralty  Secret  Orders,  wherein  British  sliips 


336  BEHIND  THE  GERMAN  VEIL 

are  advised  to  hoist  a  neutral  flag  in  case  of  danger 
from  the  enemy.  The  naval  expert  of  the  Times  ad- 
mits the  existence  of  that  order,  and  tries  to  justify  it 
by  explaining  that  it  is  a  '  recognised  war  ruse.'  The 
submarine  blockade  order  is  only  the  answer  to  the 
action  of  the  British  Admiralty.  He  who  —  in  war  — 
has  any  'power  at  his  disposal,  and  does  not  use  it  with- 
out mercy,  commits  an  unpardonable  crime  against  his 
own  country.  This  blockade  is  not  going  to  be,  as 
some  of  our  adversaries  have  described  it,  a  '  brilliant 
bluff,'  but  bitter  earnest,  as  coming  events  will  prove. 
By  the  end  of  this  month  Germany  will  have  shown  all 
the  world  that  in  time  of  war,  we  Germans  do  not  talk 
but  act,  and  act  in  such  a  manner  as  our  own  interests 
demand."  At  the  time  of  reading  the  "  interview  "  I 
could  not  help  smiling  at  the  inordinately  bombastic 
style,  so  typical  of  a  German.  I  remember  about  the 
same  time  —  i.e.,  just  before  the  blockade  was  to  come 
into  effect  —  speaking  to  a  well-known  and  very  capable 
officer  at  the  War  Office,  Captain  Grau.  "Ah,"  he 
said,  in  answer  to  my  remark  that  the  future  alone 
would  tell.  "  Yes,  you  are  right ;  but  let  me  tell  you 
that  that  future  is  not  so  very  faf  off.  In  a  month 
from  now  you'll  hear  and  see  many  great  changes." 
He  was  referring  to  the  results  of  the  blockade,  and  he 
spoke  with  great  conviction  and  in  deep  earnest.  He, 
and  a  great  many  other  Germans,  who  should  have 
known  better,  seemed  convinced  that  the  blockade  would 
bring  about  an  almost  immediate  clamour  for  peace 
from  the  "  starving  "  British  population. 

But  to  return  to  Herr  Erzberger's  view  of  the  sub- 
marine campaign. 

"  When  a  country  of  forty-four  millions,"  the  article 
continues,  "  threatens  to  starve  out  a  country  of  sev- 
enty-seven millions,  then  this  latter   country  has   an 


MATTHIAS  ERZBERGER  337 

unquestionable  right  to  defend  itself,  and  fight  for  its 
existence,  its  culture,  its  independence  with  every  means 
at  its  disposal.  In  this  war,  which  was  forced  upon  us, 
we  shall  never  consider  what  our  enemies  would  like  us 
to  do,  but  only  that  which  is  useful  and  beneficial  to  our 
own  nation.  The  confidence  of  the  whole  of  Germany 
in  the  efficiency  of  our  Navy  is  so  strong,  so  universal, 
that  every  one  looks  forward  with  calm  assurance  to 
the  successful  accomplishment  of  whatever  task  it  may 
undertake." 

Speaking  about  the  submarine  campaign,  I  must 
mention  Sir  Arthur  Conan  Doyle.  I  think  he  was  in 
those  days  the  most  popular  and  widely  read  author  in 
Germany.  A  magazine  story  written  by  him  a  short 
time  before  the  war,  and  called  "  England  in  Danger," 
has  been  translated,  and  was  sold  in  booklet  form  at 
one  mark  (24  cents).  A  well-known  bookseller,  one 
of  the  largest  in  Berlin,  told  me  that  over  a  million 
copies  of  that  story  had  been  sold,  and  that  it  was  still 
"  going  strong."  Those  who  have  read  it  will  remem- 
ber that  England  is  forced  by  the  submarine  tactics  of 
a  much  smaller  nation  to  open  peace  negotiations.  Ap- 
pended to  the  German  translation  of  this  story  are 
opinions  expressed  on  it  by  a  number  of  English  naval 
experts,  such  as :  Admiral  Lord  Charles  Beresford,  Mr. 
Frank  T.  Bullen,  Admiral  Sir  Algernon  de  Horsey, 
Admiral  Sir  Compton  Domville,  Admiral  Penrose  Fitz- 
gerald, Admiral  William  Hannam  Henderson,  Mr.  Fred 
T.  Jane,  Admiral  Sir  William  Kennedy,  JNIr.  B.  Eyres 
Monsell,  Mr.  Douglas  Owen,  Admiral  Sir  Edward 
Hobart  Seymour  and  Mr.  Arnold  White. 

It  may  also  be  of  interest  to  many  Londoners  to 
know  that  the  man  who  translated  Sir  Arthur's  sub- 
marine story  was  Woldemar  Schiitze,  who,  until  August 


338  BEHIND  THE  GERMAN  VEIL 

3rd,  1914,  was  a  member  of  the  London  Chamber  of 
Commerce,  and,  according  to  his  own  statements,  was 
"  in  closest  touch  with  London  Stock  Exchange  cir- 
cles"! 


CHAPTER  XLIV 

SECRETARY    OF    THE    LATE    GERMAN    COLONIES, 
"  EXCELLENZ    DR.    SOLE,"    AND    HIS    A.D.C.,   DR.    BUCHER 

''11  THAT'S  the  good  of  trying  to  send  the  truth 
V  V  abroad.'^  They  won't  beheve  us,  anyhow.  No! 
Send  42's  "  (referring  to  the  42-crn.  howitzers)  "and 
submarines.  Their  language  is  understood  all  over  the 
"World,  and  carries  the  greatest  weight." 

Here  is  unadulterated  "  Deutschland  iiber  Alles " 
sentiment  for  you,  such  as  I  was  greeted  with  at  the 
Colonial  Office  in  the  Wilhelmstrasse,  by  Dr.  Biicher, 
A.D.C.  to  the  German  Colonial  Secretary,  Dr.  Solf. 

But  let  us  start  at  the  beginning. 

Through  the  kind  offices  of  Dr.  Rathenau,  Chief  of 
the  Raw  Material  Department  of  the  War  Office,  I  ob- 
tained an  introduction  to  the  Colonial  Secretary,  and 
the  promise  of  an  interview.  My  enterprising  spirit 
received  a  rude  shock  when  I  learned  that  the  "  inter- 
view "  was  to  be  one  of  the  "  read^'-made  "  variety.^ 
It  was  my  first  introduction  to  the  "  made-in-Germany  " 
kind.  It  was  all  neatly  typewritten.  The  questions 
which  I  asked  (i.e.,  should  have  asked  —  but  did  not)  ; 
the  interruptions  (which  did  not  take  place),  the  ges- 
ticulations and  modulations  of  the  Secretary  (which  I 
neither  heard  nor  saw),  were  all  included;  in  short,  it 
looked  the  "  real  thing."  All  I  would  have  to  do  was 
to  translate  it,  and  then  take  it  across  the  Wilhelm- 
strasse to  the  Press  Department  of  the  Foreign  Office, 
which,  after  having  compared  original  and  translation, 
would  O.K.,  seal  and  mail  it  for  me. 

1  See  Chapter  VI. 

339 


340  BEHIND  THE  GERMAN  VEIL 

The  "  interview  "  was  mainly  retrospective.  It  was 
the  well-known  German  plea  of  "  not  guilty  "  either  in 
Africa  or  in  Europe.  He  tried  to  prove  that  Ger- 
many had  been  forced  to  fight  in  Africa.  He  referred 
to  the  Congo  Treaty,  which  empowered  belligerent  coun- 
tries interested  in  African  colonies  in  the  Congo  Valley 
to  neutralise  those  territories,  etc.,  etc. 

"  But  England,"  so  the  paper  ran,  "  was  determined 
to  hurt  Germany  wherever  she  could,  so  the  Allies  re- 
fused to  recognise  the  Congo  Treaty,  and,  as  they  could 
not  place  before  the  world  their  real  reasons  for  doing 
so,  they  claimed  that  Germany  had  started  the  fighting 
on  the  African  Continent."  It  continues  giving  names 
and  dates  that  are  supposed  to  prove  that  the  Allies 
started  the  fight.  It  concludes  with  "  England  and 
France,  by  carrying  the  war  into  Africa,  have  thereby 
injured  their  own  interests  as  much  as  ours,  because  it 
will  take  many  years  before  the  lost  prestige  of  the 
white  race  will  have  been  regained." 

Now  apart  from  trying  to  palm  off  that  ready-made 
interview  on  my  unsuspecting  and  trustful  nature,  I 
have  no  grudge  against  Dr.  Solf.  On  the  few  occasions 
when  I  met  him,  I  found  him  extremely  pleasant,  uncere- 
monious and  most  un-German.  All  conversations  I  had 
with  him  were  conducted  in  English,  except  now  and 
then  when  he  wanted  to  emphasise  a  certain  point. 
But  there  was  an  entire  absence  of  the  "  I-refuse-to- 
use-English  "  spirit,  so  prevalent  amongst  shopkeepers, 
waiters,  hotel  clerks  and  other  representatives  of  the 
middle  and  lower  classes.  Dr.  Solf  looks  very  much 
like  an  Englishman  of  the  comfortable  arm-chair  type; 
in  fact,  the  caricature  of  John  Bull  might  have  been 
patterned  after  him.  He  seemed  a  jovial,  unostenta- 
tious spirit,  and  he  never  once  "  strafed "  England. 
When  speaking  about  this  country  his  voice  sounded  a 


"EXCELLENZ  DR.  SOLE"  341 

note  of  disappointment  rather  than  of  hatred.  In  fact, 
I  believe,  if  the  real  truth  were  known,  that  away  deep 
down  in  his  heart  he  still  has  a  sneaking  liking  for 
"  perfide  Albion."  True,  he  enumerated  several  in- 
stances of  grave  excesses  alleged  to  have  been  committed 
by  the  French  and  British  forces  in  Africa;  he  banged 
his  fist  one  or  twice  on  his  desk,  but  with  it  all,  the  role 
of  "  Gott-strafe-England "  character  did  not  appear 
natural  to  the  genial  professor.  Between  ourselves  I 
think  that  if  he  could  be  caught  privately  —  say,  at  a 
pleasant  little  dinner  —  he  would,  in  an  unguarded 
moment  over  coffee  and  cigars,  admit  that  he  had  only 
the  pleasantest  recollections  of  days  and  incidents  spent 
among  the  British,  in  their  Colonies  as  well  as  at  home 
in  England. 

Of  course,  I  must  hasten  to  add  that  these  observa- 
tions are  purely  conjectural,  but  I  believe  that  any  one 
who  knows  Dr.  Solf  will  agree  with  them. 

As  he  did  not  wish  to  completely  disappoint  my  hopes 
of  a  personal  interview,  he  consented  to  try  and  answer 
a  few  questions  which  I  wanted  to  ask  him,  one  of  them 
concerning  the  future  of  the  German  Colonies.  Natu- 
rally he  was  very  reticent  on  this  point. 

"  It  is  a  bit  early  in  the  day  to  discuss  that  subject, 
and  I  prefer  not  to  go  on  record  with  prophecies  or 
speculations.  This  much  though  I  will  say,  viz. : 
That  I  expect  with  every  confidence  that  after  the  rear 
"we  shall  find  a  larger  working  area  among  the  'primitive 
nations  of  the  world,  for  our  economic  necessities.  And 
our  Colonial  politics  will  he  conducted  in  a  manner 
befitting  the  hearers  of  culture,  the  spirit  of  which 
is  deeply  rooted  in  the  German  Christian  point  of 
view.''* 

I  tried  to  keep  in  touch  with  the  Colonial  Office,  but, 


34^  BEHIND  THE  GERMAN  VEIL 

as  a  rule,  was  referred  to  Dr.  Biicher,  the  very  excitable, 
explosive  and  firebrand  variety  of  German. 

All  qualities  which  Dr.  Solf  possesses,  his  A.D.C. 
lacks,  but  where  the  Colonial  Secretary  falls  short  of 
the  usual  dose  of  real  hatred,  the  A.D.C.  is  supplied 
with  an  unlimited,  ever-flowing  source  of  it.  I  have 
met  many  "strafing"  Germans  during  my  sojourn  in 
the  Vaterland,  but  Dr.  Biicher  takes  the  prize  for  his 
supply  of  unadulterated,  thorough  and  plentiful  "  Gott- 
strafe-England  "  spirit.  And  he  is  not  slow  in  showing 
it,  either.  He  has  given  me  many  an  entertaining  dis- 
course which  has  made  the  time  fly.  Though  still  com- 
paratively young  —  I  judge  him  to  be  about  thirty-five 
—  he  has  already  occupied  several  important  positions 
in  different  parts  of  the  German  Colonies,  and  is  thor- 
oughly au  courant  with  Germany's  colonial  policy  and 
affairs.  His  travels  in  many  lands,  his  contact  with 
the  English  and  French,  have  left  him  unscathed.  He 
remains  thoroughly  and  utterly  the  super-German  of 
the  "  Deutschland-iiber-Alles  "  and  "  We-must-win,-we- 
SHALL-win "  type.  With  the  very  widest  stretch  of 
imagination  you  could  not  accuse  him  of  being  a  diplo- 
mat, not  even  a  German  one.  His  temperament  is  ex- 
plosive, dangerously  so  for  a  man  in  his  position ;  he 
hates  the  English,  as  I  have  already  pointed  out,  with 
a  force  which  continually  finds  ways  of  expressing  itself, 
and  he  is  absolutely  convinced  that  those  Germans  who 
are  trying  to  spread  abroad  the  gospel  that  Germany 
is  a  "  peace-loving  nation,"  imbued  with  the  spirit  of 
"  love  your  neighbour  and  work  hard,"  are  sentimental 
fools. 

"  The  truth,  indeed !  "  he  thundered  at  me  one  after- 
noon. "  Why  should  Gemiany  have  to  justify  her  ac- 
tions when  she  is  fighting  for  her  existence,  for  her 
place  in  the  sun.''     Why  dilly-dally  with  countries  that 


"EXCELLENZ  DR.  SOLE"  343 

are  only  neutral  in  theory?  The  only  argument,  the 
only  language  they  understand  abroad  is  *  Wir  hauen 
sie  '  "  (We  are  beating  them).  "  That,  howitzers  and 
submarines.  Any  other  reasoning  is  futile.  They 
don't  believe  us,  anyhow." 

This  is  a  fair  example  of  the  gospel  of  "  Frightful- 
ness,"  and,  to  judge  by  subsequent  events,  it  has  found 
many  disciples. 

As  may  be  judged  from  his  remarks,  Dr.  Biicher 
cannot  see  any  reason  why  we  neutral  journalists  should 
be  provided  with  any  facilities  for  obtaining  informa- 
tion. "  Why  should  we  have  to  beg  America  for  her 
moral  support?  We  are  fighting  against  a  world  of 
enemies,  and  we  are  not  obliged  to  explain  or  defend 
our  actions  to  any  one.  Neutral?  Hah!  that  word 
has  lost  its  meaning  abroad.  Everybody  hates  us. 
Why?  Because  everybody  is  jealous  of  us.  *  We  do 
not  know  how  to  colonise,'  says  England.  Let  them 
take  official  statistics  on  trade  reports.  They  will  find 
out  which  Colonies  have  done  the  largest  amount  of 
business !  " 

I  had  an  opportunity  later  on  to  cut  in  with  one  of 
the  questions  I  had  come  to  ask,  viz.,  about  the  part 
Germany  played  in  the  Transvaal  rebellion.  I  pointed 
out  that  it  did  not  seem  quite  logical  that  the  Colonial 
Secretary  should  argue  that  Article  11  of  the  Congo 
Treaty  should  have  been  maintained  in  Africa,  when 
Germany  at  the  same  time  instigated  and  encouraged 
the  rebellious  tendencies  of  Beyers,  De  Wet  and  Mar- 
itz. 

Another  explosion  followed.  "  We  had  nothing 
whatsoever  to  do  with  that  rebellion.  The  Transvaal 
and  its  leaders  do  not  need  German  encouragement  to 
revolt  against  England,"  he  shouted  so  that  it  must 
have  been  heard  across  the  Wilhclmstrasse.     "  They  do 


344  BEHIND  THE  GERMAN  VEIL 

not  want  English  rule  any  more  than  the  Egyptians 
do." 

I  suggested  that  the  revolt  had  proved  that  a  dif- 
ferent state  of  things  existed. 

"  Wait,  my  friend,"  he  returned.  "  Mark  my  words, 
the  very  first  moment  that  things  begin  to  go  wrong  with 
the  English  campaign  in  Europe,  the  Boers  will  be  the 
first  to  rise.  Do  not  ever  believe  that  they  are  English, 
they  are  Dutch  first  and  last." 

We  changed  the  subject  then  to  that  of  peace.  "  Did 
you  come  across  any  real  sensible  German,"  he  asked 
me,  "  who  is  thinking  of  peace  at  present.'^  Have  you 
obtained  any  impression,  wherever  you  have  been,  that 
we  are  tired,  that  we  are  discouraged.''  If  you  have, 
you  are  sadly  mistaken.  No  nation  that  accomplishes 
what  we  have  in  these  many  months  of  war,  though 
attacked  on  all  sides,  can  be  vanquished.  As  to  de- 
stroying our  trade,  in  five  years  after  the  war  we  shall 
have  it  all  back  again."  He  put  his  hand  in  his  pocket 
and  took  out  a  pen-knife.  "  Do  you  suppose  anybody 
is  going  to  pay  the  English  or  the  Americans  sixpence 
for  this  knife,  when  they  can  buy  it  from  Germany  for 
fivepence.''     Certainly  not." 

He  also  discussed  America  and  the  Japanese  question. 

"  The  time  will  come  when  America  will  be  glad  of 
our  help  against  the  aggression  of  the  yellow  race. 
Our  danger  is  not  so  great  because  we  have  Russia  as 
a  buffer  state  between  us.  Look  what  Japan  was 
twenty  years  ago.  Look  Avhat  happened  to  Port  Ar- 
thur. To-day  there  are  fifteen  Europeans  there,  while 
before  the  Russo-Japanese  War  it  had  nearly  two  thou- 
sand. In  the  long  run  America  is  going  to  suffer  as 
much  from  this  war  as  Europe.  For  one  thing,  it  is 
not  going  to  get  any  immigrants  to  speak  of  for  the 


«  EXCELLENZ  DR.  SOLE  »  345 

next  ten  years."  He  added  sarcastically :  "  America 
is  drifting  into  the  same  imperialistic  channels  as  what 
they  call  the  '  mother  country,'  only  there  it  sails  under 
the  flag  of  the  '  Monroe  Doctrine.'  America's  sphere 
of  '  responsibility  '  is  as  unlimited  as  the  British  sphere 
of  '  protection.'  " 

I  have  cited  here  some  of  the  many  absurd,  not  to  say 
maliciously  false,  arguments  which  are  used  in  Germany 
to-day,  not  by  the  uneducated  classes  only,  but  by  men 
who  are  generally  supposed  to  have  reached  years  of 
discretion  and  learned  judgment. 


CHAPTER  XLV 

,  SASSENBACH SOCIAL    DEMOCEAT 

ON  my  list  of  prospective  victims  to  be  interviewed 
there  occurred,  somewhat  vaguely,  the  memo- 
randum, "  a  Social  Democrat."  They  were  harder  to 
get  at  than  the  Chancellor  himself  —  at  least,  those 
amongst  the  Social  Democrats  that  amounted  to  any- 
thing. No  doubt  the  Foreign  Office  would  have  been 
able  to  arrange  something  for  me,  but  I  wanted  a  real 
talk,  not  a  rechauffe  of  Foreign  Office  rubbish,  or  the 
usual  typewritten  interview  which  you  receive  in  your 
morning  mail  with  your  rolls  and  coffee. 

The  only  way  to  safeguard  your  interviews  against 
official  tampering  is  to  take  your  victim  by  surprise.  I 
took  great  care  never  to  mention  my  "  Social  Demo- 
cratic "  ambitions,  but  kept  my  eyes  and  ears  open.  As 
usual,  patience  was  rewarded.  My  opportunity  came 
one  evening  when  interviewing  "  Excellenz  Wehrmuth," 
the  Lord  Mayor  of  Berlin.  Carefully  I  led  the  subject 
on  to  the  Social  Democrats  (his  betes  noires  before  the 
war,  but,  of  course,  I  was  not  supposed  to  know  that). 
Now  his  Excellency  had  nothing  but  praise  for  their 
attitude.  He  spoke  about  the  help  he  had  received 
from  them  in  the  distribution  of  bread  tickets.  "  Sas- 
senbach  has  behaved  admirably,"  he  said. 

"Who  is  Sassenbach?"  I  inquired  innocently  and 
ignorantly  as  well.  And  then  I  learned  that  Sassen- 
bach was  something  of  an  embryo  Ramsay  Macdonald, 
John  Burns  and  Lloyd  George  rolled  into  one. 

When  there  is  any  labour  trouble,  it's  Sassenbach 
who  has  to  be  seen.     When  factories  changed  from  the 

346 


SASSENBACH  —  SOCIAL  DEMOCRAT      347 

manufacturing  of  peace-time  articles  into  munitions  of 
war,  and  the  rules  and  regulations  of  the  trade  unions 
were  temporarily  shelved,  it  was  Sassenbach  who 
smoothed  things  over;  when  saddlers  and  munition 
workers  were  making  too  high  wages  at  the  cost  of  some 
of  their  less  fortunate  fellow-workmen,  many  of  whom 
had  been  thrown  out  of  employment,  it  was  Sassenbach 
who  regulated  matters.  He  is  entirely  a  self-made  man. 
He  speaks  French  and  English  fairly  well,  every  word 
of  it  he  has  taught  himself.  He  is  City  Councillor  of 
Berlin,  and  could  have  a  seat  in  the  Reichstag  to-mor- 
row for  the  asking,  but  he  feels  that  he  can  serve  his 
cause  and  his  comrades  better  as  the  only  Social  Demo- 
cratic Councillor  of  the  City  of  Berlin.  Up  till  about 
the  middle  of  last  year  Sassenbach's  organisation,  I 
mean  that  part  of  the  trades  union  which  comes  under 
his  direct  supervision,  had  sent  over  one  million  men 
into  the  field. 

To-day  Sassenbach  enjoys  the  confidence  of  many 
important  men  in  Germany ;  five  years  ago  he  was  one 
of  the  most  heartily  despised  firebrands. 

"  The  very  man,"  I  said  ...  to  myself. 

The  Lord  Mayor,  not  very  astute,  and  in  no  wise 
typical  of  the  Prussian  official  and  fire-eater,  at  once 
acceded  to  my  request  for  an  introduction  to  Sassen- 
bach. "  No  time  like  the  present  "  is  a  truism  nowhere 
so  applicable  as  in  journalism;  so,  from  the  Lord 
Mayor's  ofl^cial  residence,  I  at  once  proceeded  to  the 
"  Gewerbschaftshaus  "  (trade-union  headquarters)  at 
15  and  11,  Engelufer,  Berlin,  South  East.  I  sent  up 
my  card  together  with  that  of  the  Lord  Mayor,  and 
was  at  once  admitted.  A  short,  red-haired,  bullet- 
headed  little  man  received  me  most  cordially,  and  turned 
out  to  be  the  great  Sassenbach  himself.  Alas !  I  was 
not  to  have  him  "  unter  vier  Augen "  ("  under  four 


348  BEHIND  THE  GERMAN  VEIL 

eyes  "),  as  a  few  minutes  after  my  arrival  Professor 
Francke,  head  of  the  Bureau  for  Social  Economics, 
walked  in  and  stayed.  Still,  he  did  not  matter  very 
much. 

Sassenbach  had  a  great  deal  to  say  on  the  subject  of 
the  friendly  relations  that  were  kept  up,  in  spite  of  the 
war,  with  the  international  committees  of  the  trade 
unionists  in  London  and  Paris.  He  told  me  that  only 
recently  he  had  heard  from  both  Mr.  Appleton  and 
their  French  colleagues. 

I  did  not  see  Mr.  Appleton's  letter,  and,  of  course,  I 
do  not  know  the  conditions  that  exist  to-day,  but  some- 
how at  the  time  I  think  he  spoke  the  truth. 

"  Could  your  united  efforts  not  have  prevented  this 
war  ?  "  was  a  question  which  naturally  suggested  itself 
to  me.  By  his  answer  the  man  proved  his  mettle.  I 
was   amazed.     It  was  splendid.     He  said: 

"  Do  you  happen  to  recall  a  speech  that  was  made 
in  1912  on  the  subject  of  Socialists  and  the  Labour 
Party  by  the  late  Lord  Roberts?  It  caused  a  veritable 
avalanche  of  correspondence  between,  and  from,  So- 
cialists all  over  the  world,  and  it  made  England  buzz 
with  excitement  from  north  to  south." 

I  said  that  I  had  heard  about  several  of  Lord  Roberts' 
speeches,  especially  about  those  in  which  he  had  ex- 
horted his  countrymen  to  have  their  army  in  a  better 
state  of  preparedness.  "  Yes,"  said  Sassenbach,  "  I 
know  that  was  part  of  some  of  his  speeches,  but  the 
particular  oration  I  have  in  mind  is  the  one  in  which 
he  said :  '  We  have  heard  much  of  the  power  of  the 
Labour  Party  in  international  politics.  It  is  said  that 
the  German  Socialist  will  not  make  war  upon  his  English 
or  French  comrade.  This  remains  to  be  seen.  Love 
of  country  in  the  actual  day  of  battle  has  always  proved 
itself  superior  to  love  of  profit.     That  law  has  not  been 


SASSENBACH  —  SOCIAL  DEMOCRAT     349 

abrogated,  and,  if  war  broke  out  to-morrow,  the  Ger- 
man workman  would  acquit  himself  like  a  German,  and 
the  British  workman  like  a  Briton.'  " 

I  was  simply  amazed.  Sassenbach  had  quoted  en- 
tirely from  memory,  but  when  he  had  finished,  he  went 
over  to  one  of  the  shelves  in  his  room,  took  from  it 
a  dossier,  and  in  a  few  minutes  had  found  Lord  Roberts* 
speech  from  which  he  had  quoted.  Sassenbach  con- 
tinued : 

"  Lord  Roberts  was  a  far-seeing  Irishman,  and  many 
of  us  Socialists  have  often  thought  of  his  words  since 
those  dark  days  of  July,  1914.  I  well  remember  the 
sea  of  correspondence  and  denials  that  that  speech  pro- 
voked here  in  Germany.  We  were  wrong  and  Lord 
Roberts  was  right," 

Here  was  a  nice  little  journalistic  tit-bit.  Lord 
Roberts,  the  one  man  m  this  country  who  warned  Eng- 
land against  its  unpreparedness,  with  Germany  in  his 
mind,  being  eulogised  by  a  German  "  Social  Demo- 
crat " ! 

My  next  question  nearly  got  me  into  hot  water  with 
Professor  Francke.  I  suggested  to  Sassenbach  whether 
it  might  not  prove  a  blessing  in  disguise  for  the  German 
Avorkman,  if  Germany  should  be  beaten,  thereby  being 
relieved  of  the  yoke  of  Prussian  militarism.''  Francke 
got  quite  excited.  Sassenbach  started  to  reply,  but 
was  cut  short  by  the  Professor  saying,  "  I'll  answer 
him ! " 

"  Herr  Beaufort,  if  you  want  to  make  yourself  thor- 
oughly unpopular  here,  and  your  mission  to  be  an  entire 
failure;  if  you  want  to  make  people  shut  up  like  a  clam, 
then  ask  such  questions  ur  make  such  suggestions !  In 
the  first  place,  we  are  not  going  to  lose  this  war,  but 
if  we  did,  it  would  go  ill  with  the  German  workman, 
because  he  would  be  taxed  a  great  deal  heavier  than  he 


350  BEHIND  THE  GERMAN  VEIL 

is  now,  to  pay  for  the  war  indemnity  ;  and,  secondly,  our 
jealous  enemies  would  place  such  restrictions  on  our 
trade  that  it  would  be  impossible  for  us  to  compete." 

I  asked  Sassenbach  why  his  party  had  been  con- 
tinually opposing  the  increase  of  armaments.  His  an- 
swer was  typical :  "  We  realise  to-day  that  we  were 
mistaken.  The  working  men  do  not  as  yet  rule  the 
world  —  this  war  is  proving  that.  What  •would  have 
become  of  us  all  if  we  had  not  had  our  army,  if  we  had 
not  been  prepared  as  we  are?  " 

I  thought  that  in  such  a  case  Germany  would  perhaps 
have  shown  a  different  and  more  conciliatory  attitude 
towards  various  proposals  made  by  other  countries; 
that  her  policy  would  perhaps  have  been  less  aggressive 
and  overbearing,  and  consequently  that  the  war  might 
have  been  avoided.     But  he  would  have  none  of  it. 

"  No,  no,"  he  emphatically  exclaimed,  "  Germany's 
spirit  was  conciliatory  to  the  end.  Read  the  last  tele- 
gram our  Kaiser  sent  to  the  Czar.  We  were  forced  to 
fight.  England  has  been  wanting  to  get  at  us  for  a 
long  time.  Does  any  sane  person  really  think  that  you 
could  have  found  one  idiot  in  St.  Petersburg  who  would 
have  started  this  war  with  us  if  Russia  had  not  been 
sure  of  France  and  England?  Belgium  —  bah!  As 
our  famous  Bismarck  said  many  years  ago,  '  England 
does  not  go  to  war  on  a  matter  of  honour.'  Russia 
knew  our  strength  and  her  own  weakness.  No ;  this 
war  has  been  a  wilful  attack  on  a  peace-loving,  industri- 
ous nation.  I  know  the  spirit  and  the  feelings  of  my 
men.  I  am  one  of  them,  and  that  is  why  we  have  risen 
to  a  man,  and  we  will  stand  together,  low  by  high  and 
high  by  low,  and  see  this  through." 

When  a  man  of  Sassenbach's  type  feels  and  speaks 
in  that  manner,  prompted,  I  am  sure,  by  deep  motives 


V 


SASSENBACH  —  SOCIAL  DEMOCRAT      351 

and  honest  convictions,  you  may  imagine  how  violent 
the  feelings  must  be  amongst  the  lesser  elements. 

Later,  I  had  a  chance  to  return  to  his  remark  about 
still  being  in  touch  with  the  international  committees  of 
his  organisation,  a  statement  which  naturally  had 
rather  surprised  me.  I  was  wondering  whether  by  any 
chance  the  Government  was  trying  to  use  the  Social 
Democratic  Party  and  the  trades  unionists  to  fly  peace 
kites.  So  I  thought  I  would  set  a  little  trap  for  my 
very  interesting  host.     But  he  didn't  take  the  bait. 

"  Cannot  you  people,  you  millions  of  Socialists  and 
trades  unionists  in  Europe,  who  have  been  babbling  and 
shouting  about  fraternity,  peace  and  goodwill,  bring 
about  a  settlement  of  this  terrific  struggle?  " 

He  gravely  shook  his  head.  "  No,  we  cannot  adjust 
these  matters  now.  This  is  a  war  of  our  entire  nation, 
and  any  peace  arrangements  must  come  from  competent 
judges  mandated  by  the  nation.  Though  we  corre- 
spond with  our  associates  we  never  discuss  the  war. 
We  have  mutual  assurances  that  after  the  war  our  rela- 
tions will  be  resumed  where  they  were  left  off." 

As  far  as  I  know,  the  above  was  the  only  interview 
that  has  been  obtained  by  a  foreign  journalist  from 
a  German  "  Social  Democrat "  since  the  war.  The 
German  Press  manipulators  keep  them  in  the  back- 
ground (the  Social  Democrats,  I  mean,  though  thia 
applies  to  foreign  journalists  as  well). 


CHAPTER  XL VI 

MINISTER    OF    THE    INTERIOR HELFFERICH 

AT  a  Press  dinner  given  by  Baron  Mumm  von 
Schwarzenstein  at  the  Hotel  Esplanade  in  Berlin, 
I  managed  to  get  a  few  words  with  Excellenz  Helfferich. 
It  was  the  only  chance  he  ever  gave  me.  He  was  the 
piece  de  resistance  of  the  dinner.  I  asked  him  about 
the  end  of  the  war,  but  he  refused  to  say  when  he 
thought  it  would  come.  "  We  are  all  going  to  be  losers, 
we  are  all  going  to  be  very  much  poorer.  France  will 
become  a  second-class  power,  Russia  will  have  to  face  a 
revolution,  and  England  will  get  off  with  a  black  eye. 
Austria  will  suffer  a  set-back  of  twenty  years,  and  it 
will  probably  take  us  the  best  part  of  ten  years  to  re- 
gain our  pre-war  position." 

I  should  like  to  remark  here  that  Herr  Helfferich's 
ideas,  as  quoted  above,  are  shared  by  many  Germans 
in  the  higher  positions.  All  through  1915  the  illusion 
was  very  popular  in  Germany  that  the  French  might  be 
bribed  into  a  separate  peace  by  the  German  offer  to 
withdraw  from  the  occupied  French  territory,  provided 
France  would  leave  Germany  a  free  hand  with  England. 
Many  Germans  saw  already  visions  of  an  "  arrested  " 
British  army.  Speaking  about  arrested  recalls  to  my 
mind  a  story  told  at  the  above  dinner  by  my  table  neigh- 
bour, a  former  Consul  as  Ostend.  He  said  that  when 
von  Kluck  heard  about  the  landing  of  British  troops  in 
Ostend,  he  telegraphed  to  the  President  of  the  Berlin 
Police  requesting  him  to  send  a  squad  of  policemen  to 

Ostend  "  to  arrest  the  British  army !  " 

352 


CHAPTER  XL VII 

ADMIRAL    VON    CAPELLE    AND    "  CAPTAIN    LIEUTENANT  " 
LOHLEIN 

I  HAVE  already  referred  elsewhere  to  my  persistent 
visits  to  the  "  Marineamt  " —  the  German  Ad- 
miralty —  and  to  some  of  its  results.  I  must  describe 
here  an  incident  which  has  since  been  frequently  recalled 
to  my  mind  on  account  of  its  sinister  and  prophetic 
character. 

I  was  sitting  in  Captain  Lohlein's  office  one  morning, 
when  all  of  a  sudden  the  door  burst  open,  and  in  rushed 
a  higher  naval  officer.  His  sleeves  were  covered  with 
gold  braid  almost  up  to  his  elbow;  he  was  flourishing 
a  copy  of  the  B.  Z.  (Berliner  Zeitung  am  Mittag,  Ber- 
lin noonday  paper),  and  shouted:  "Now,  who  rules 
the  waves  ?  "  I  caught  my  breath  for  a  moment  as  I 
read  in  big  fat  headlines  the  name  "  Lusitania,"  but 
fortunately  saw  immediately  below,  though  printed  in 
much  smaller  type:  "hoists  the  American  flag."  He 
was  followed  by  several  other  naval  officers. 

The  excited  visitor  was  Admiral  von  Capelle,  then 
Under-Secretary  of  State  for  the  Navy,  but  since  pro- 
moted to  von  Tirpitz'  office.  After  it  was  explained 
to  him  that  I  was  a  neutral  correspondent,  and  that  I 
represented  various  American  publications,  he  came 
towards  me,  thrust  the  sheet  almost  literally  under  by 
nose,  and  snorted :  "  Well,  what  is  Herr  Wilson  going 
to  do  about  this?  He  cannot  very  well  remain  neutral 
and  inactive  in  face  of  such  proceedings,  such  misuse 
of  the  '  Stars  and  Stripes  ' !  " 

Then,  again  addressing  the  other  officers,  he  con- 
353 


354  BEHIND  THE  GERMAN  VEIL 

tinued :  "  What  a  humiliation,  gentlemen,  what  a 
frightful  blot  on  the  British  flag!  Hauled  down  —  eh? 
—  for  one  of  our  little  submarines.  Ah,  well,  wait," 
and  here  I  was  singled  out  again  for  his  special  atten- 
tion ;  "  before  long  we'll  show  the  world  something." 

"  She  " —  pointing  to  the  ship's  name  — "  will  stop 
her  sailings,  or  we'll  get  her  sooner  or  later.  That  will 
wake  them  up  over  there.  Our  navy  is  not  going  to 
lag  behind  our  army  in  the  matter  of  surprises.  We 
still  have  one  or  two  left  both  on  sea  as  well  as  on 
land.  In  a  month  from  now  no  British  ship  will  put 
her  nose  outside  a  harbour  with  her  own  flag  flying. 
The  fact  that  the  British  Admiralty  has  issued  instruc- 
tions that  merchant  ships  should  carry  arms  puts  them 
on  a  level  with  francs-tireurs  —  civilians  who  fire  on 
troops  —  and  no  pardon  will  be  given  them." 

He  left  the  office  as  precipitately  as  he  had  entered. 
I  asked  Captain  Lohlein  how  many  knots  his  fastest 
submarine  could  make,  but  he  shrugged  his  shoulders 
in  answer,  and  said  mysteriously,  "  Wait  and  see.  We 
will  '  show  '  you  before  very  long." 

Nevertheless,  Lohlein  referred  to  the  British  torpedo- 
boat  destroyers  as  "  devils  incarnate."  He  gave  quite 
an  interesting  and  almost  realistic  description  of  that 
most  critical  moment  when  a  submarine  rises  to  the 
surface  after  having  been  totally  submerged.  "  You 
see,"  he  explained,  "  when  we  rise  out  of  the  water  at 
first  the  range  of  vision  of  our  periscope  is  very  limited, 
and  if  a  destroyer  is  anywhere  within  half  a  mile  or  even 
a  mile,  it  is  a  close  shave  for  the  submarine.  Orders 
have  been  issued  that  our  submarines  must  not  show 
themselves  unless  absolutely  necessary.  Of  course,  I 
agree  that  it  is  more  humane  to  signal  steamers  first, 
and  this  is  always  done  if  possible,  but  not  where  it 
would  be  suicidal  to  our  submarine  and  her  crew.     An 


ADMIRAL  VON  CAPELLE  355 

enemy  torpedo-boat  destroyer  may  be  lurking  some- 
where near,  especially  in  misty  weather,  or  it  may  even 
approach  under  cover  of  the  very  ship  we  are  wanting 
to  sink.  We  are  fighting  for  our  existence.  You  neu- 
trals are  continually  losing  sight  of  that  point.  Acts 
of  humanity  in  submarine  warfare  are  too  dangerous. 
Consideration  of  non-combatants  must  necessarily  take 
second  place  to  considerations  of  our  own  safety.  If 
neutral  nations  are  so  shocked  at  the  loss  of  life  among 
non-combatants  because  our  submarines  do  not  want 
to  risk  their  boats  and  crew,  then  they  should  persuade 
their  Governments  to  take  steps  with  the  English,  caus- 
ing the  British  Admiralty  to  withdraw  from  the  Channel 
and  the  North  Sea  all  torpedo-boat  destroyers  and 
similarly  armed  ships.  In  that  case  we  will  guarantee 
that  in  future  not  a  life  —  non-combatant,  be  it  under- 
stood —  shall  be  lost." 

Let  me  emphatically  assure  you  that  Captain  Lohlein 
was  NOT  joking. 


CHAPTER  XLVIII 

PEESS-MAJOR  HERWARTH  VON  BITTERFELD  OF  THE  GREAT 

GENERAL    STAFF    SETTLES    THE    PROBLEM    OF 

UNIVERSAL    PEACE 

AT  the  Press  Department  of  the  General  Staff  you 
meet  Major  Herwarth  von  Bitterfeld,  who  looks 
after  the  welfare  —  mentally  speaking  —  and  educa- 
tion of  foreign  journalists,  more  especially  American 
ones. 

One  of  the  first  admonitions  he  gives  you  is  to  be  sure 
and  read  a  number  of  articles  by  English  writers  that 
have  appeared  during  the  last  ten  years,  and  which 
prove  the  sinister  British  designs  on  innocent,  peace- 
loving  Germany.  The  major,  although  assuring  you 
that  it  will  throw  an  entirely  different  light  on  recent 
events  if  you  will  only  peruse  those  writings  which 
preach  the  gospel  of  war  against  Germany,  does  not 
offer  to  lend  you  his  copies,  and  evidently  expects  you 
to  go  over  to  England  and  hunt  them  up. 

When  he  has  given  you  the  list,  titles,  authors  and 
all,  you  respectively  and  with  due  humility  venture  to 
refer  to  General  von  Bernhardi's  book,  "  How  Ger- 
many Makes  War,"  which  you  think  is  somewhat  of  the 
same  order  as  the  articles  the  Major  has  referred  you 
to. 

"  I  knew  that  was  coming,"  he  snaps  back  at  you  at 

once;  "I  have  been  waiting  for  it.     Every  journalist 

that   comes   in   here   refers   to   that   silly   book,   which 

seems  to  be  the  only  one  they  have  been  reading  abroad. 

But  let  me  tell  you  something.     I  do  not  wish  to  go 

356 


HERWARTH  VON  BITTERFELD        357 

into  the  merits  or  demerits  of  that  work,  but  I  can 
asure  you  that  that  book  has  been  chiefly  circulated 
abroad.  German  people  have  hardly  ever  heard  of  it, 
and  if  you  wanted  to  get  a  copy  to-day,  you  would 
have  to  buy  the  English  translation.  You  cannot  get 
a  German  edition  anywhere." 

"All  sold  out,  I  suppose?"  you  meaningly  inquire, 
whereupon  you  learn  that  in  Germany  the  book  hardly 
ran  to  one  edition  of  a  few  thousand  copies. 

His  second  pet  subject  is:  — 

"  The  future  of  Calais,  Boulogne,  Dunkerque,  and 
the  '  departements  '  along  the  English  Channel." 

The  major  plants  his  six  foot  something  squarely 
in  front  of  you  and  shaking  his  fist  at  a  large  map  of 
the  British  Isles,  surrounded  by  red  dots  ( subma- 
rines.?)  he  bursts  out: — "Do  you  know  what  would 
happen  if  Germany  should  lose  this  war?  "  You  trem- 
ble to  think  of  such  a  disaster  and  humbly  admit  that 
you  have  not  the  least  idea. 

"  Here,  I'll  tell  you ;  I'll  show  you,"  retorts  the 
strenuous  major,  and,  leading  you  to  a  map  of  Eng- 
land and  the  French  Channel  provinces,  he  stabs  a 
big  forefinger  at  Dunkerque,  Calais  and  Boulogne,  and 
then  draws  a  half  circle  round  that  strip  of  France 
bordering  the  Channel,  "  England  will  never  evacu- 
ate those  places  unless  forced  to  do  so  by  Germany. 
Did  you,  now  be  honest,  did  you  ever  hear  of  any  Brit- 
ish troops  voluntarily  evacuating  territory  they  had 
once  occupied?  " 

You  look  at  the  tall  major  with  admiration,  almost 
with  awe;  you  look  at  the  map,  Dunkerque,  Calais, 
Boulogne,  Pas-de-Calais,  and  you  meditate.  You  have 
been  almost  carried  away  by  his  brilliant  eloquence, 
but  somehow  the  big  fat  forefinger  and  the  blackrimmed 


858  BEHIND  THE  GERMAN  VEIL 

spectacles  seem  to  spoil  it.  You  are  reminded  of  the 
German  schoolmaster  rather  than  the  German  General 
Staff  officer,  and  .  .  .  the  spell  is  broken.  Your  sense 
of  humour  asserts  itself,  and  addressing  your  in- 
structor, after,  of  course,  a  respectful  interval  —  in 
which  to  find  your  words  —  you  exclaim :  — "  By  Jove, 
Major,  now  we  non-military  chaps  would  never  have 
thought  of  that.  Would  you  mind  if  I  just  jot  this 
down  in  my  little  notebook.?  This  is  too  important  to 
chance  forgetting." 

Of  course  the  Major  has  no  objection  to  having  his 
words  thus  preserved  for  posterity.  Evidently  he  is 
encouraged  to  further  flights  of  rhetoric  when  you 
meekly  inquire,  "  What  will  happen  when  Germany  gets 
to  Calais  and  Boulogne?  " 

Ah,  he  sees  you  are  a  man  of  intelligence.  That  is 
JUST  the  question  you  are  expected  to  ask. 

"  Now  the  Germans  in  Calais  and  Boulogne,  that 
would  be  quite  a  different  story  "  ( rather !  I  should 
think  it  would  be.  Vide  Liege,  Namur,  Louvain). 
"Do  you  know  what  that  would  mean?  (You  won- 
der and  tremble  again.  England,"  you  think,  but 
not  aloud.)      The  Major  answers  the  question  himself. 

"  That  would  create  the  millennium  of  universal 
'peace" 

You  look  surprised?  The  entertaining  Major  no- 
tices it.  How  stupid !  Back  to  the  map  again.  "  I'll 
show  you.  You  see  Germany  would  in  that  case  be 
wedged  in  between  England  and  France,  thereby  sepa- 
rating London  and  Paris.  That  would  prevent  France 
from  making  in  future  any  further  hasty  and  careless 
'offensive  alliances.'  And  England?  Ah,  we  would 
insist  on  building  the  much  discussed  tunnel  under  the 
Channel,  the  British  exit  of  which  would  be  guarded  by 
a  ring  of  forts  manned  by  German  regiments.     This, 


HERWARTH  VON  BITTERFELD        359 

and  the  watchful  eyes  of  our  Zeppelin  sheds  at  Dun- 
kerque,  Calais  and  Boulogne  would  eradicate  those  ar- 
rogant, aggravating  lines  that  *  Britannia  Rules  the 
Waves.'  » 

There  now,  the  whole  problem  of  universal  peace  set- 
tled and  solved.  Oh,  no,  he  was  not  trying  to  tell 
funny  after-dinner  stories.  The  interview  took  place 
early  in  the  morning  in  his  office  at  the  General  Staff 
Building  on  the  Konigsplatz  in  Berlin,  and  the  Major 
was  quite  sober  at  the  time,  which  cannot  always  be 
said  of  him. 

So  much  for  the  future  of  the  Channel  cities,  Calais, 
Boulogne,  etc.  It  looks  as  if  whichever  way  the  for- 
tunes of  war  may  fall,  they  are  going  to  change  their 
colour  on  the  map. 


CHAPTER  XLIX 

HERR    CRASS,    KRUPP's    REPRESENTATIVE    IN    BERLIN 

THROUGH  my  Introduction  to  Herr  Krupp  von 
Bolilen  I  met  his  General  Manager  in  Berlin, 
Herr  Crass,  who  is  the  official  go-between  of  the  War 
Office  and  the  Krupp  firm. 

Now  and  then  I  met  an  honest  German.  Herr  Crass 
was  one  of  them.  I  think  he  gave  me  his  views  on 
conditions  as  they  really  were,  and  not  as  he  should 
have  lilced  them  to  be.  I  found  him  a  very  pleasant 
and  genial  companion,  and  during  my  weeks  in  Berlin 
I  saw  a  good  deal  of  him.  Herr  Crass  did  not  have 
many  good  words  for  the  German  diplomats.  He  said : 
"  The  origin  of  this  terrible  war  can  be  traced  to  two 
causes :  Our  diplomats  and  our  Press.  A  free  expres- 
sion of  opinion,  editorial  views  voiced  by  competent, 
educated  and  well-paid  critics,  such  as  are. found  to-day 
in  the  journals  of  all  civilised  countries,  Germany 
knows  not.  A  proper  Press  would  have  gone  a  long 
way  towards  preventing  this  war.  As  far  as  our  diplo- 
mats are  concerned,  the  least  said  about  them  the  better. 
Anyhow,  two  of  them  are  now  where  they  can  do  no 
more  harm  —  von  Schon  (formerly  in  Paris)  is  in 
Munich,  where  his  office  is  a  mere  sinecure,^  and  Lich- 
nowsky  is  on  his  estate  in  Silesia."  (I  met  von  Schon 
in  Munich  at  a  tea  given  by  the  American  Consul-Gen- 
eral there.  He  was  living  at  the  time  in  a  modest  third- 
floor  flat  in  a  second-rate  street.  A  far  cry,  indeed, 
from  the  palatial  German  Embassy  in  Paris.) 

Herr  Crass  assured  me  emphatically  that  Lichnowsky 

1  Since  resigned. 

360 


HERR  CRASS  361 

misinformed  the  Berlin  Foreign  Office  about  the  situa- 
tion in  England.  Even  up  to  the  last  day  he  reported 
that  Great  Britain  would  not  go  to  war.  Had  they  had 
another  man  in  London  war  might  have  been  averted 
at  the  last  moment.  It  was  Herr  Crass  who  first  told 
me  the  Germany  diplomat  story. 

Herr  Crass  believes  that  a  military  decision  may 
eventually  be  obtained  against  Russia  and  France,  but 
not  against  England.  He  had  no  exaggerated  ideas  on 
the  subject  of  "making  Albion  pay."  "England  is 
very  strong,"  he  confessed  to  me  more  than  once,  "  and 
I  fear  that  we  shall  not  dictate  peace  terms  with  our 
foot  on  the  neck  of  the  enemy,  as  some  of  our  military 
leaders  have  so  often  predicted."  Speaking  about  Bel- 
gium, he  expressed  the  opinion  that  it  would  not  be 
retained  except  as  a  pawn  for  future  negotiations.  He 
criticised  German  strategy  in  the  West,  and  he  gave  me 
many  interesting  details  of  the  famous  War  Council, 
which  I  have  mentioned  elsewhere.  "  If  they  had  list- 
ened to  the  advice  of  some  of  our  oldest  generals,  the 
history  of  this  war  would  have  been  written  quite  dif- 
ferently. Of  course,  a  scapegoat  had  to  be  found,  and 
Moltke  was  the  one.  But  it  was  not  he  who  was  most 
to  blame." 

One  of  Herr  Grass's  relatives  is  a  great  friend  of 
Prince  Henry  of  Prussia,  the  Kaiser's  brother.  A  few 
weeks  after  the  declaration  of  war,  this  relative  received 
a  long  letter  from  Prince  Henry,  in  which  he  described 
the  terrible  scenes  which  were  enacted  at  the  Palace  on 
August  1st,  during  the  last  hours  before  the  Kaiser 
signed  the  Order  for  General  Mobilisation.  He  said 
they  had  been  heart-breaking.  Telegram  after  tele- 
gram arrived  from  all  parts  of  Europe,  but  those  from 
Russia  grew  more  and  more  ominous.  Von  Moltke, 
Falkenhayn,  von  Bethmann-Hollweg,  Tirpitz  and  the 


362  BEHIND  THE  GERMAN  VEIL 

Crown  Prince  were  present.  The  letter  said  that  it 
took  the  Kaiser's  advisers  more  than  two  hours  before 
they  could  finally  persuade  him  to  append  his  signature 
to  the  edict  that  set  the  huge  instrument  of  war  in 
motion,  and  all  Europe  in  flames.  From  the  manner 
Herr  Crass  told  me  of  this  incident,  and  in  view  of  the 
many  reliable  bits  of  interesting  information  he  had 
supplied  me  with  on  previous  occasions,  I  am  forced  to 
state  that  I  feel  inclined  to  believe  his  story  of  the 
letter  without  reserve. 

He  criticised  Germany's  colonial  policy,  that  of  hav- 
ing small  parcels  of  territory  in  different  parts  of  the 
world.  "  What  we  need  is  one  large  colony,  and  to 
have  it  properly  armed  and  protected,"  he  said.  He 
more  than  once  directly  hinted  that  Asia  Minor  might 
fill  this  long-felt  want.  Digressing  here  for  a  moment 
from  Herr  Crass,  I  should  like  to  say  that  during  my 
stay  in  Germany  I  heard  many  ominous  whispers  with 
regard  to  the  future  of  Turkey.  Turkey  is  expected 
to  settle  many  difficulties,  even  those  that  are  bound 
to  crop  up  at  the  coming  peace  conference.  The  first 
time  that  I  heard  reference  made  to  Turkey  was  in  Rome 
by  one  of  the  minor  attaches  of  the  (then)  German 
Embassy  there:  "  There  is  one  great  fact  the  Allies 
are  losing  sight  of,'^  he  said,  "  if  nothing  else,  this  war 
has  already  gained  us  one  huge  empire  —  Turkey. 
Does  any  sane  person  think  that  we  are  ever  going  to 
relinquish  our  foothold  there?  " 

Amongst  well-informed  people  it  is  conceded  that 
isolated  tracts  of  land  in  various  parts  of  the  globe  are 
a  mistake,  and  it  is  believed  that  in  Asia  Minor  Germany 
will  find  all  the  scope  for  colonisation  she  could  possibly 
desire.  Pan-Germanism,  centralisation  —  those  are 
the  German  maxims  of  to-day.  And,  speaking  about 
colonies  and  her  own  defunct  ones,  they  say :     "  Ah, 


The  Famous  Krlpp  Armament  Works  at  Essex.    5,000-Tox 

Press 


HERR  CRASS  S6S 

well,  it  seems  a  pity  to  have  fought  there,  such  useless 
bloodshed,  because  what  possible  effect  can  the  fighting 
there  have  on  the  ultimate  outcome  of  the  war?  So 
long  as  our  forces  hold  such  important  and  extensive 
areas  of  France,  Russia  and  Belgium,  it  stands  to  rea- 
son that  we  shall  either  keep  those,  or  exchange  them 
for  territory  outside  Europe." 

I  am  quite  prepared  to  believe  that  it  will  take  more 
than  diplomacy  to  get  Germany  out  of  Turkey.^ 

On  the  whole,  Hcrr  Crass  greatly  bewailed  the  war. 
"  Look  at  our  trade !  We  were  doing  wonders ;  what 
more  could  we  possibly  ask?  Look  at  Kiao-chau:  it 
has  cost  us  millions  and  millions,  and  now  it  is  lost  for 
ever.  And  our  navy  was  supposed  to  be  able  to  protect 
our  foreign  possessions.     Bah  !  " 

Once  in  a  while  Herr  Crass  could  be  persuaded  to 
talk  shop  —  i.e.,  "  Krupp."  One  evening  at  dinner  we 
were  discussing  the  respective  merits  of  the  Krupp  v. 
the  Creuzot  gun.  He  certainly  paid  all  due  respect 
to  his  opponents  and  his  competitors'  famous  "  75," 
and  drew  the  following  quaint  analogy: 

"  A  Swiss  watch  is  considered  the  non  plus  ultra  of 
timekeepers.  Yet  there  are  the  American  watches,  in- 
ferior perhaps  with  regard  to  their  delicate  mecha- 
nism, but,  nevertheless,  running  quite  accurately.  The 
American  watch  has  several  great  advantages  over  the 
Swiss  watch,  namel}^,  it  is  stronger,  consequently  it  will 
stand  more  knocking  about ;  it  is  cheaper  and  it  is  easier 
to  repair.  The  same  comparison  holds  good  between 
Creuzot  an|d  Krupp  guns.  The  Creuzot-built  gun  is 
a  magnificent  piece  of  mechanism,  but  the  Krupp  gun 
is  stronger  and  does  not  get  out  of  order  so  easily. 
The  Krupp  gun  has  fewer  parts,  and  the  barrel  being 
built  out  of  one  solid  piece  of  nickel-steel,  has  never 

I  See  Chapter  L. 


364  BEHIND  THE  GERMAN  VEIL 

been  known  to  burst.  The  Creuzot  gun  in  expert  hands 
is  perhaps  slightly  superior  to  ours,  but  it  takes  expert 
artillerists  of  long  training  to  serve  it.  In  the  hands 
of  a  French  artillerist  a  Creuzot  gun  is  a  marvellous 
instrument  of  accuracy  and  destruction ;  the  Krupp  gun 
in  the  hands  of  our  experts  lags  very  little  behind." 

I  reminded  him  of  the  poor  show  Krupp  guns  had 
made  in  the  Balkan  war.  "  Ah,  that  is  easily  explained, 
my  friend,"  he  at  once  replied ;  "  the  whole  trouble  lay 
in  their  handling.  The  Bulgarian  Creuzot  guns  were 
served  by  French-trained  and  an  expert  personnel ; 
our  guns  were  served  by  poorly-trained  Turkish  artil- 
lerists." 

Herr  Crass  claimed  that  Essen  has  a  greater  knowl- 
edge on  the  subject  of  gun-building,  armour-plating 
and  high  explosives  than  any  other  place  in  the  world. 
"  Our  secrets  are  carefully  guarded.  Take  our  42-cm. 
(17-inch)  guns.  Only  the  oldest  and  most  trusted 
workmen  were  admitted  to  the  part  of  the  works  where 
they  were  being  built.  Our  artillery  practice  at  the 
range  at  Meppen  is  without  a  peer  in  the  world.  In 
1913,  at  our  various  shooting  ranges  over  60,000  pro- 
jectiles w^ere  fired,  using  over  6,000  guns.  Any  new 
invention  in  explosives,  ammunition  or  ordnance  is 
nearly  always  offered  to  us  first,  because  for  anything 
that  has  merit,  and  for  which  we  are  able  to  obtain  the 
exclusive  rights,  we  are  willing  to  pay  the  highest  price." 


CHAPTER  L 

HERR  BALLIN's  A.D.C,  HERR  VON  HOLTZENDORFF 

THE  following  interview  may  throw  an  interesting 
sidelight  on  the  way  Germany  is  'preparing  for 
the  war  after  the  war.  It  records  a  conversation  which 
I  had  with  Herr  von  Holtzendorff  in  his  magnificent 
offices  at  the  Hotel  Kaiserhof.  Holtzendorff  is  Herr 
Ballin's  right-hand  man  in  Berlin;  he  represents  the 
Hamburg-America  Line  interests  in  all  negotiations  and 
pourparlers  with  the  German  Government.  Germany 
is,  so  to  speak,  a  "  one-man  country,"  and  most  of  its 
organisations  are  largely  patterned  on  that  principle. 
There  is  rarely  room  for  two  big  men  at  the  top  —  in 
Germany;  that  is  why  the  very  able  and  often  indis- 
pensable adjutants  of  her  big  men  are  very  little  known 
to  the  public.  I  have  illustrated  this  in  my  chapter  on 
Hindenburg  and  Ludendorff. 

Holtzendorff  is  Ballin's  "  Ludendorff."  Let  me  say 
at  once  that  I  have  been  able  to  verify  most  of  the 
statements  Herr  von  Holtzendorff  made  to  me  with  re- 
gard to  the  increase  of  Germany's  merchant  marine. 
The  subject  was  brought  up  by  my  question  with  regard 
to  the  persistent  rumours  that  were  circulating  in 
America,  that  the  Hamburg-America  Line  was  anxious 
to  sell  her  ships,  interned  in  neutral,  especially  Ameri- 
can, harbours.  He  denied  most  emphatically  that  there 
was  any  foundation  whatsoever  in  those  reports.  "  On 
the  contrary,"  he  said,  "  we  are  increasing,  rather  than 
diminishing,  the  number  of  our  merchant  vessels.  Every 
yard  we  have  been  able  to  hire  is  working  for  us  and 
employed  in  the  building  of  new  vessels.     Why?     Be- 

365 


366  BEHIND  THE  GERMAN  VEIL 

cause  after  the  war  we  expect  that  we  shall  need  a  much 
larger  tonnage  than  ever  before.  We  have  almost  com- 
pleted two  new  mammoth  steamers  of  practically  the 
same  displacement  —  60,000  tons  —  as  the  Imperator, 
viz.,  the  Bismarck  and  the  Tirpitz.  Besides  those  two, 
we  have  about  thirty  other  ships  on  the  stocks,  varying 
in  tonnage  from  eight  to  thirty  thousand.  After  the 
roar  we  shall  have  a  new  fleet  of  merchant  vessels,  as 
every  other  steamship  company  in  Germany  is  following 
our  example.  England,  no  doubt,  will  establish  a  tariff 
ring  round  herself,  but  that  will  never  prevent  us  from 
continuing  our  commercial  activities  in  her  colonies  and 
in  neutral  countries.  England  will  never  capture  our 
markets ;  the  world  cannot  do  without  Germany. 
Patriotism  is  a  very  fine  thing,  and  in  war  time  a  real 
asset.  In  times  of  peace  it  is  an  entirely  different  mat- 
ter; it  works  all  right  ...  as  long  as  it  doesn't  touch 
the  pocket.  No  doubt  there  will  be  a  certain  amount 
of  ill-feeling  for  several  months  after  the  war,  say  about 
six,  but  after  that  period?  Well,  if  a  man  can  save  a 
penny  by  buying  a  German-made  article  he  will  soon 
forget  his  peace-time  patriotism.  The  British  will  find 
that  they  are  up  against  a  much  bigger  proposition 
than  patriotic  scruples,  viz.,  human  nature,  which,  after 
all,  is  much  the  same  the  world  over." 

He  spoke  dispassionately,  without  the  least  sign  of 
hatred.  As  always,  I  remarked  on  the  fact  that  he 
had  not  "  strafed "  England,  whereupon  he  told  me 
that  the  feeling  of  disappointment  at  England's  inter- 
ference w^as  much  the  stronger  sentiment,  with  him  as 
with  many  others. 

For  many  months  of  last  year  the  eyes  of  official 
circles  in  Germany  were  on  Egypt,  and  the  Turkish 
campaign  and  plans.     Holtzendorff,  quoting  Bismarck, 


HERR  BALLIN'S  A.D.C.  367 

said :  "  Of  the  British  Empire,  England  is  the  head, 
India  the  body,  but  Egypt  the  neck!  If  we  can  take 
Egypt  we  can  strangle  Britain's  world  power." 

The  Turks  were  at  the  time  at  "  El  Kantara,"  which 
means  "  The  Bridge."  This  was  considered  in  Ger- 
many a  good  omen. 

Holtzendorff  confidently  expected  that,  after  the 
crossing  of  the  Canal  —  which,  of  course,  he  took  for 
granted  —  the  Turks  would  advance  in  a  southern  di- 
rection along  the  fresh-water  canal  of  Abassie,  towards 
Ishmailie,  and  hence,  always  keeping  alongside  the 
Abassie  canal,  on  Cairo.  This  route  would  necessitate 
no  crossing  of  the  Nile.  Naturally,  one  of  the  first 
things  the  Turks  would  do  would  be  to  destroy  the  fresh- 
water canal,  thereby  depriving  Suez,  Port  Said  and 
Ishmailie  of  all  supply  of  fresh  water.  The  destruc- 
tion of  this  canal  would  also  seriously  interfere  with  the 
Allied  warships  in  and  near  the  Suez  Canal,  as  the 
water  of  the  Great  Bitter  Lakes  is  undrinkable. 

I  am  giving  these  opinions  to  show  the  German  rea- 
soning, the  German  point  of  view,  hopes  and  dreams,  all 
of  which  have  sooner  or  later  followed  the  great  ma- 
jority of  many  other  abortive  German  schemes. 

Speaking  about  Hamburg,  Herr  Holtzendorff  admit- 
ted that  of  course  that  city  felt  the  war  more  than  any 
other  in  the  German  Empire.  The  losses  of  the  Ham- 
burg-America Line  are  enormous,  too ;  but,  thanks  to 
her  solid  foundation,  her  reserves  and  other  resources, 
he  was  confident  that,  like  the  Fatherland,  "  We  will 
stand  the  racket." 


CHAPTER  LI 

THE   GEEMAN-TXTRKISH   ALLIANCE   AND    ITS   AMBITIONS 

"As*  Antwerp  has  been  called  a  loaded  pistol  pointed 
-iV  at  the  heart  of  England,  so  the  double  track  of 
the  Bagdad  Railroad  will  some  day  be  described  as  a 
double-barrelled  modern  automatic  pointed  at  the  heart 
of  India.'^ 

Thus  Herr  von  Gwinner,  Managing  Director  of  the 
Deutsche  Bank,^  and  President  of  the  Anatolian  and 
Bagdad  Railway  Companies,  in  an  interview  I  had  with 
him  last  year  in  Berlin. 

It  seems  a  far  cry  these  days  since  Bismarck  wrote: 
"  Germany  has  no  interest  in  the  East,"  and  "  The 
whole  Balkan  question  is,  as  far  as  Germany  is  con- 
cerned, not  worth  the  healthy  bones  of  a  Pomeranian 
Grenadier."  Five  years  after  this  was  written  —  Le.^ 
in  1898  —  the  Emperor  made  his  famous  Palestine  trip, 
of  which  the  Bagdad  Railroad  Concession  was  one  of 
the  many  direct  results.^ 

In  1914  Prince  von  Biilow  wrote  (in  his  book  "  Im- 
perial Germany  ")  :  "  If  one  can  speak  of  boundless 
prospects  anywhere,  it  is  in  Mesopotamia." 

Last  year  during  an  interview  with  Dr.  Solf,  Colonial 
Secretary,  and  his  fire-brand  A.D.C.,  Dr.  Biicher,  while 
discussing  their  dwindling  colonies,  the  Minister  said: 

1  It  is  said  that  the  financial  interests  of  the  German  Bank  in  the 
lAsia  Minor  railroad  schemes  now  amount  to  close  on  one  hundred 
and  fifty  million  doUars. 

2  The  Concession  was  granted  in  1899. 

368 


THE  GERMAN-TURKISH  ALLIANCE      369 

"  Never  mind,  this  war  will  be  decided  in  Europe, 
not  in  the  colonies.  Besides,  our  enemies  forget  Ger- 
many's strong  new  ally,  our  Turkish  friends.  Turkey 
will  amply  compensate  us  for  any  losses  we  may  sustain 
elsewhere." 

In  what  manner  Dr.  Biicher  refused  to  define.  But 
he  subsequently  added,  smiling  ironically,  "  We  are 
going  to  adopt  the  English  slogan  on  the  question  of 
'  temporary  '  occupations,  viz.,  '  Here  we  are,  and  here 
we  stay.'  " 

Before  this  war  is  over  and  settled,  Balkan  and  East- 
ern affairs  will  have  cost  Germany  the  bones  of  many 
thousands  of  Grenadiers.  But  they  think  in  Germany 
to-day  that  it  will  be  well  worth  it. 

When  I  embarked  on  my  European  trip  last  year, 
an  English  friend  of  mine  advised  me  to  try  and  make 
it  a  special  object  to  study  wherever  and  whenever 
possible  Germany's  policy  formulated  in  the  slogan: 
*' Der  Drang  nach  Osten  "  (We  push  East).  It  was 
an  excellent  bit  of  advice,  but  a  large  order.  It  opened 
to  me  many  new  subjects.  Of  course,  I  well  knew  of 
Germany's  influence  in  Turkish  affairs  during  the  last 
fifteen  years,  but  my  most  sanguine  expectations,  fears, 
I  might  say,  were  exceeded  when  I  became  better  ac- 
quainted with  the  extent  of  German  ramifications  in 
the  Ottoman  Empire. 

Since  the  Kaiser's  Eastern  visit,  Germany  has,  with 
all  the  means,  schemes  and  conspiracies  at  her  disposal 
(and  we  now  know  how  numerous  these  are),  literally 
rooted  herself  into  Turkish  politics  and  economic  life. 

It  is  not  without  a  certain  diffidence  that  I  approach 
my  task  of  recording  here,  or  trying  to,  some  of  the 
knowledge  and  information  gained  during  the  better 
part  of  two  years'  travel  through  Europe,  including 


870  BEHIND  THE  GERMAN  VEIL 

Germany.  I  spent  many  long  evenings  in  conversation 
with  Turks  of  diametrically  opposite  viewpoints ; 
hours  bent  over  excellent  large-scale  maps  of  Ana- 
tolia, Mesopotamia,  Persia,  Afghanistan,  the  North- 
West  Provinces,  etc.  "  How  is  it  possible,"  I  have 
asked  myself  again  and  again,  "  that  intrigues,  con- 
spiracies, underhand  dealings,  briberies  of  such  magni- 
tude and  audacity  could  have  been  carried  out  under  the 
very  nose  of  the  British  Government?  "  I  believe  that 
the  majority  of  people  in  this  country  are  as  ignorant 
to-day  about  German-Turkish  affairs  as  they  were  about 
Germany  and  her  plans  at  the  beginning  of  the  war. 
And  that  is  saving  a  good  deal !  If  this  country  had 
had  an  inkling  of  Germany's  real  intentions  with  Tur- 
key, and  through  Turkey  with  the  whole  Islamic  world, 
she  would  have  taken  stronger  measures  to  counteract 
German  influences.  (In  the  first  place,  by  cultivating 
Turkish  good-will,  '^  coute  qu'il  coute").  The  Turk 
was  willing.  Every  honest  and  intelligent  Turk  I  met, 
of  course  provided  he  dared  say  what  he  really  thought, 
admitted  that  their  alliance  with  Germany  and  Austria 
was  not  a  natural  one.  But  Turkey  has  always  been 
afraid  of  Russia,  her  arch-enemy,  and  Germany  knew 
how  to  exploit  that  fear,  to  hold  it  as  a  Damoclean 
sword  over  her  head.  "  Our  position  was  this,"  a 
certain  well-known  Turkish  official  said  to  me  one  eve- 
ning in  Vienna,  "  Germany  impressed  upon  us  that  our 
only  hope  of  remaining  a  European  Power  lay  in  an 
alliance  with  her  and  Austria.  '  Refuse  it,'  she  said, 
*  and  before  long  Russia  will  kick  you  across  the 
Hellespont.'  " 

Slowly  but  surely,  the  German  spider  was  weaving 
the  web  that  was  to  entice  the  Turkish  honey-bee  into 
her  clutches ;  gradually  certain  cliques  in  Turkey, 
with  German-made  spectacles  on  their  noses,  began  to 


THE  CARMAN-TURKISH  ALLIANCE       371 

"  see "  that  Germanv's  and  Turkey's  interests  were 
"  identical,"  and  that  the  only  means  that  could  save 
her  from  ruin  would  be  an  all-embracing  alliance  with 
the  Fatherland. 

But  Turkey  struggled  hard,  very  hard.  She  knew! 
If  only  England,  the  old  friend,  had  stretched  out  a 
protecting,  reassuring  hand,  all  of  Germany's  carefully- 
laid  schemes  could,  even  at  the  eleventh  hour,  have  been 
thwarted. 

I  may  be  wrong,  but  I  believe  that,  in  spite  of  Ger- 
many's thorough  preparation  of  Islam,  Turkey  could 
have  been  kept  out  of  this  war.  Oh,  I  know  —  as  I 
have  been  told  so  often  since  my  return  to  England  — 
the  Entente  Powers,  through  their  Ambassadors  at  Con- 
stantinople, gave  explicit  assurances  to  the  Porte  that 
if  she  remained  neutral  her  independence  and  integrity 
would  be  guaranteed.  "What  more  could  we  do?" 
Huh !  Is  it  sufficient  to  tell  a  sick  man,  gasping  for 
breath  as  the  result  of  a  drugged,  poison-undermined 
system,  to  "  sit  still,"  "  to  keep  quiet,  and  he'll  be  all 
right".'*  No,  he  needs  a  tonic,  and  a  strong  one,  too. 
That  is  what  ailed  Turkey.  What  the  tonic  should 
have  consisted  of,  it  is  not  for  me  to  say.  Competent 
doctors,  no  doubt,  could  have  prescribed  it.  Where 
were  they.'*  Were  they  absent,  or  did  they  diagnose  the 
case  wrong.'' 

Let  me  say  a  few  words  about  my  sources  of  informa- 
tion. At  a  semi-official  reception  in  Berlin,  given  by 
the  wife  of  a  prominent  German  official,  to  whom  I  had 
a  letter  of  introduction,  I  was  presented  to  the  sister 
of  the  present  Khedive  of  Egypt.  Where  her  sympa- 
thies really  lay,  I  was  unable  to  judge,  as  my  conver- 
sation with  her  was,  with  one  exception,  purely  objective 


372  BEHIND  THE  GERMAN  VEIL 

and  incidental.  She  spoke  about  her  brother's  accept- 
ance of  the  British  post.  Personally,  she  did  not  seem 
to  approve  of  it.  She  said  that  Prince  Hussein  had 
accepted  the  nominal  dignity  from  purely  patriotic 
reasons,  i.e.,  because  he  believed  that  in  that  position  — 
however  much  of  a  sinecure  it  might  be  —  he  could  serve 
his  unhappy  country  better  than  if  he  had  refused  the 
honour.  As  far  as  I  was  able  to  infer,  she  hears  regu- 
larly from  him.  She  seemed  pleased  to  learn  that  I 
was  greatly  interested,  from  a  purely  neutral  stand- 
point, of  course,^  in  Turkish  affairs,  and  was  instru- 
mental in  my  meeting  a  number  of  Turks,  occupying 
high  positions  at  home  as  well  as  in  Germany.  To  some 
of  these  men  I  owe  a  great  debt  of  gratitude,  as  great 
as  an  ambitious  journalist  and  seeker  after  the  truth 
can  owe,  to  the  most  fertile  and  the  most  interest- 
ing sources  of  information,  on  a  subject  which  will  be- 
come one  of  the  greatest  problems  of  this  war.  From 
these  men,  and  let  me  say  right  here,  many  of  them 
rabid  anti-Germans,  I  learned  in  a  short  three  months 
more  about  the  German  machinations,  intrigues,  plots, 
coercions,  hopes  and  dreams  with  regard  to  Turkey,  the 
Mohammedan  race,  Egypt,  Arabia,  Persia,  Afghan- 
istan, Algiers,  Morocco,  Tunis  and  Tripoli,  than  I 
should  have  otherwise  in  three  years. 

I  had  several  long  and  interesting  talks  with  a  mem- 
ber of  the  entourage  of  the  Khedive's  sister,  an  old 
Turkish  diplomat  of  high  standing,  who  had  for  many 
years  occupied  responsible  positions  in  Turkey  and 
abroad.     After  a  while,  when  I  had  been  able  to  gain 

1  It  is  well  to  make  this  clear  whenever  discussing  German- 
Turkish  problems,  because  you  never  know  for  certain,  not  even 
in  Germany,  unless,  of  course,  you  are  talking  to  a  German, 
whether  you  are  dealing  with  a  pro-Turk  or  merely  a  pro-German. 
The  two  are  by  no  means  as  identical  as  people  think. 


THE  GERMAN-TURKISH  ALLIANCE     373 

his  confidence,  he  spoke  very  freely  to  me.  It  is  for 
that  reason  that  I  must  refrain  from  mentioning  his 
name.  Though  he  hved  at  the  time  in  Germany  he  was 
as  utterly  anti-German  and  pro-British  as  if  he  had 
been  an  ally  of  ours.  But  that  did  not  prevent  him 
from  seeing  things  in  their  true  proportion.  Here  are 
some  of  the  opinions  he  expressed  to  me  at  various 
times :  — 

"  We  know  that  our  Alliance  with  Austria  and  Ger- 
many is  not  a  natural  one.  We  are  not  in  it  from 
choice,  but  merely  from  national  necessity.  The  ma- 
jority of  us  would  have  welcomed  with  both  hands  a 
closer  Entente  with  England.  In  spite  of  many  dis- 
appointments during  the  last  decade  or  two,  we  have 
always  looked  to  that  country  as  our  natural  protector. 
But  Salisbur3''s  declaration  in  Parliament  in  1897 
that :  — "  Territory  which  has  been  once  reconquered 
by  the  Cross  can  never  be  returned  to  the  Crescent  was 
a  mistake.  It  has  since  been  adopted  as  a  slogan,  and 
its  principle  carried  out  with  a  vengeance.  Russia  has 
always  been  plotting  against  us.  She  was  always  at 
the  bottom  of  all  our  troubles  and  difficulties.  Saso- 
now  recently  declared  that,  besides  Galicia,  Constan- 
tinople was  her  object  in  this  v/ar,  and  of  course  with 
Constantinople  the  northern  part  of  Asia  Minor.  In 
1902  Abdul  Hamid  was  inveigled  into  granting  Russia 
all  railroad  concessions  in  northern  Asia  Minor  (see 
page  12).  Did  Russia  use  those  grants  to  improve 
the  country,  to  build  railroad  lines.'*  No,  it  was 
merely  a  political  transaction  on  her  part.  The  re- 
sult was  that  in  1914,  i.e.,  after  12  years,  Turkey 
was  still  without  a  railroad  communication  with 
her  most  important  fortress  in  Asia  Minor  —  Er- 
zerum." 

"  Russia  wants  the  Dardenelles,  always  has  wanted 


874         BEHIND  THE  GERMAN  VEIL 

them,  but  mark  my  words,  she  will  never  get  them}  I 
well  remember  the  days  of  1878  when  the  Russians 
stood  before  Constantinople,  Disraeli  did  not  lose 
much  time  then,  or  adopt  a  '  wait  and  see '  policy,  but 
sent  several  warships  at  once  into  the  Sea  of  Marmora 
to  protect  our  capital.  Had  the  British  government 
done  the  same  in  1914?,  Turkey  might  never  have  en- 
tered this  war." 

"  What  do  you  think  is  going  to  happen  to  Constan- 
tinople after  the  war.f*  "  I  asked. 

"  At  the  worst  internationalisation.  None  of  the 
Allies  will  ever  trust  each  other  there  alone.  Let  us 
look  at  the  matter  from  England's  point  of  view. 
What  good  would  Constantinople  be  to  her  if  Russia 
has  a  predominating  influence  in  Asia  Minor?  What 
good  would  a  British  Fleet  be  in  the  Black  Sea  in  that 
case.'^  England  must  protect  her  road  to  India.  If 
the  Turkish  Empire  is  destroyed,  that  road  will  be  at 
the  mercy  of  Russia." 

"  Sasonow  also  spoke  of  an  extension  of  the  Russian 
Power  in  Persia.  Persia  up  till  now  has  succeeded 
fairly  well  in  remaining  neutral,  by  no  means  an  easy 
task,  I  might  add.  Her  opinion  of  Sasonow's  plans 
is  not  difficult  to  guess.  Is  she  going  to  assist  Russia, 
and  thereby  commit  National  suicide.''  Hardl3\  For- 
tunately English  diplomacy  in  Persia  has  been  excellent 
so  far,  and  has  in  many  ways  set  off  the  harm  done 
by  Russia.  England  realises  that  Persia's  influence 
can  be  of  enormous  consequence  in  Afghanistan, 
Beluchistan  and  India.  The  decisions  which  from 
time  to  time  will  be  made  in  the  Mealis,  the  Persian 
Parliament,  may  well  be  watched  by  England  with  a 
great  deal  of  interest  and  anxiety.     A  Holy  War,  in 

1  This  statement  was  made  to  me  before  the  Dardanelles  Expe- 
dition was  abandoned. 


THE  GERMAN-TURKISH  ALLIANCE     375 

which  the  Persian  Mahommedans  joined,  would  have 
the  most  far-reaching  effects.  A  British  author, 
Lovat  Eraser,  wrote  some  time  ago  that  Germany 
could  not  cope  with  Anglo-Russian  Diplomacy  in  the 
Teheran.  That  may  be  so,  but  statements  such  as 
those  made  by  Sasonow  are  not  likely  to  improve 
diplomatic  pour-parlers  in  Persia,  in  favour  of  the 
Allies.  As  Mr.  Eraser  very  aptly  added,  '  In  Oriental 
countries  small  causes  often  produce  great  effects.' 
Besides,  Persia  is  necessary  to  England  to  protect  the 
road  to  India.  An  independent,  pro-British  Persia 
would  always  be  a  serious  menace  to  the  Russian  lines 
of  communication  in  case  of  a  march  on  India.  All 
these  matters  may  seem  very  far  off  to-day,  but  they 
will  not  always  remain  so.  England's  Achilles  Heel 
lies  in  the  Orient." 

A  German  officer,  who  had  recently  returned  from 
Constantinople,  in  one  of  those  more  or  less  truthful 
after-dinner    confidences,    confided    to    an    American :  ^ 

"  With  all  our  work  there,  with  all  the  good  we  have 
done  those  ingrates  [sic],  I  have  to  admit  that  they 
still  like  the  British  better  than  they  do  us." 

Several  Turks  spoke  of  the  "  strong,  clean  hand  of 
England." 

How  often  I  heard  in  those  days :  "  Ah,  the  British 
are  just!  " 

Turkey  is  beginning  to  find  out  that,  whoever  will 
win,  she  is  going  to  lose.  Whenever  I  wanted  to  get 
a  rise  out  of  a  German  officer,  I  would  ask  him :  *'  Tell 
me,  what  are  the  Turks  really  fighting  for?  Why  did 
they  come  into  this  war  ?  "     Of  course,  these  are  very 

1  Miss  Eleanor  F.  Egan  of  the  "  Saturday  Evening  Post." 


376         BEHIND  THE  GERMAN  VEIL 

anti-Gennan  questions,  and  I  never  yet  had  them  satis- 
factorily answered. 

As  far  as  the  Young  Turk  party  is  concerned,  their 
interest  in  the  war  is  passive  rather  than  active. 
Forty  Turkish  pounds  buys  exemption  from  mili- 
tary service.  Part  of  this  is  used  to  bring  Turkish 
fighting  material  up  from  the  heart  of  the  Empire. 
They  make  excellent  soldiers  and  fighters,  but,  as  for 
any  notion  of  what  they  are  fighting  for,  they  are  as 
innocent  as  new-born  babes. 

"  What  good  is  all  this  fighting  going  to  do  Turkey?  " 
many  Turkish  patriots  are  beginning  to  ask.  The 
last  thing  the  Turks  want  is  to  have  German  control 
in  Constantinople. 

"What  brought  you  into  this  war?"  I  asked  my 
friend  the  old  Turkish  diplomat.  The  answer  came 
without  a  moment's  hesitation :  "  Enver  Pasha  and 
Liman  von  Sanders.  Enver  Pasha  has  usurped  every 
vestige  of  authority,  and  is  rapidly  becoming  the  Dic- 
tator of  Turkey.  The  so-called  '  Crown  Council '  he 
created  is  a  mere  farce.  The  Minister  of  Justice  is 
one  of  his  tools,  and  the  heir-presumptive,  Prince  Yous- 
sofF  Izzeddin,  is  known  to  be  utterly  German  in  his 
sympathies.  Prince  Said  Halim,  the  Grand  Vizier; 
Talaad  Pasha,  the  Minister  of  the  Interior;  Djavid 
Bey,  the  clever  Minister  of  Finance,  and  the  former 
Grand  Vizier,  Nakki  Pasha,  were  all  of  them  violently 
opposed  to  Turkey  entering  this  war.  Prince  Said 
Halim  stated  to  me  at  the  time  that  it  was  simply  *  sui- 
cidal.' It  is  only  from  motives  of  patriotism  that  they 
remained  in  office,  hoping  against  hope  that  '  something 
might  turn  up  '  to  stop  this  downward  slide  of  our  poor 
country." 

Enver  Pasha  was  at  the  head  of  the  Arabs  in  the 


THE  GERMAN-TURKISH  ALLIANCE     377 

Tripoli-Italian  War ;  but,  a  fact  which  I  do  not  believe 
very  generally  known,  is  that  a  German  officer  on  the 
active  list  was  with  him  during  the  whole  campaign  as 
his  military  adviser.  Yet  Italy  was  Germany's  Ally! 
Several  of  my  informants  —  Turks  —  assured  me 
that  there  was  little  doubt  that  Von  der  Goltz  Pasha  had 
been  murdered.  I  was  also  told  that  Liman  von  Sanders 
would  be  the  next.  If  there  is  any  man  who  has  made 
himself  universally  hated  In  Turkey  It  is  that  German 
General.  He  is  to  a  large  extent  held  responsible  for 
having  dragged  Turkey  into  this  war  b}^  his  persistently 
aggressive  policy  and  speeches  against  Russia. 

Now  let  us  look  at  some  of  the  German  arguments, 
viewpoints,  and  logic  In  favour  of  the  German-Turkish 
"  Waffenbriiderschaft."  Those  quoted  below  have 
been  culled  from  official  and  confidential  documents 
which,  through  the  kind  offices  of  some  of  these  Turks, 
who  still  have  the  real  Interest  of  their  country  at 
heart,  I  was  privileged  to  see  and  study.  Most  of  them 
were  written  in  French. 

One  dissertation,  on  time-yellowed  paper  (dated  May, 
1898),  came  from  the  Wilhelmstrasse,  and  was  evidently 
in  answer  to  certain  Turkish  objections.  It  was  typi- 
cal of  many.     It  said : 

"The  most  natural,  the  most  logical  Triple  Alliance  of  to-day- 
is  Germany,  Austria-Hungary  and  Turkey.  You  speak  of  selfish 
interests,  my  friend,  'Quelle  horreur!'  \Ve  want  to  help  Turkey; 
we  want  to  teach  her  how  to  live,  how  to  till  her  lands,  how  to 
build  houses  and  make  them  habitable,  how  to  make  machinery 
and  how  to  derive  the  greatest  benefits  from  it.  We  want  to  teach 
you  German  '  Kultur,'  German  knowledge,  German  honesty,  Ger- 
man thoroughness  and  German  philosophy.  You  express  fear 
about  your  religion.  Dear  friend !  We  shall  never  interfere  with 
one  text  of  your  Koran.  Not  one  temple,  church,  or  other  place 
of  worship  shall  be  desecrated  by  even  as  much  as  our  presence 
in  them," 


378  BEHIND  THE  GERMAN  VEIL 

Another  letter  of  about  the  same  date,  and  emanating 
3m  the  same  so 
ing  paragraphs : 


from  the  same  source,  contained  the  following  interest 


"  We  will  build  railroads  in  your  country,  and  show  you  that  it 
is  not  a  '  Shaitan  arbasy  '  (devil's  carriage),  but  a  bringer  of  pros- 
perity. And  you  will  soon  learn  that  the  German  bearer  of  Kul- 
tur  does  not  come  like  the  Russian,  as  a  conqueror;  like  the  Eng- 
lishman, as  an  exploiter;  or  like  the  Frenchman,  as  an  usurer. 
No !    The  faithful  German  comes  as  a  helper  and  as  a  friend ! " 

Not  a  bad  example  that,  methinks,  of  the  type  of 
German  assurances  of  "  disinterestedness  " ! 

A  paper,  dated  1901,  shortly  after  the  Bagdad  Rail- 
road concession  was  granted,  said: 

"The  roads  to  Persia  and  India  must  in  future  pass  through 
the  Turkish  Empire  instead  of  through  Russia.  The  road  to  Per- 
sia will  run  from  Constantinople  (Haidar  Pasha)  to  Samsun  on 
the  Black  Sea  and  from  there  along  its  borders  to  Trebizond, 
from  Trebizond  inland  again  to  Erzerum,  Tabriz  and  Teheran." 

However,  a  year  after  that  was  written  Russia  got 
wind  of  these  ambitious  plans,  and  promptly  cornered 
all  railroad  concessions  in  Asia  Minor,  north  of  the 
line  Angora-Van  Lake  (described  as  the  "  Basin  de  la 
Mer  Noire").  England,  on  the  other  hand,  in  March, 
1903,  at  the  Bagdad  Railway  Conference,  gave  up  her 
chances  of  participation  in  the  Bagdad  Railroad 
scheme. 

Again  I  read : 

"We  will  lead  you  once  more  on  the  highroad  to  become  a 
strong,  healthy  world-power;  drag  you  from  your  state  of  leth- 
argy, which  has  earned  you  the  sobriquet  of  '  The  Sick  Man  of 
Europe.'  Your  ruler  is  the  spiritual  head  of  the  Mohammedan 
peoples.  There  are  still  two  Mohammedan  Empires,  which,  at 
least  nominally,  have  retained  their  independence,  though  the  two 
highwaymen,  England  and  Russia,  are  lurking  on  the  threshold  — 
Persia  and  Afghanistan.  Tliey  will  become  our  allies  —  your 
allies  if  they  see  a  new,  strong,  regenerated  Turkish  Empire. 
Egypt,  too,  will  return  to  the  fold  when  yuur  ten  million  brothers 


THE  GERMAN-TURKISH  ALLIANCE     379 

there  find  out  that  you  have  the  power  to  protect  them.  And  so 
will  Arabia,  Tunis,  Morocco,  perhaps  even  Algiers.  That  is  what 
a  German-Turkish  Alliance  would  mean  to  you.  A  Mohammedan 
Empire  stretching  from  Constantinople  and  Smj-rna  to  the  Khai- 
bar  Pass  and  Peschawur,  and  Allah  only  knows  how  far  beyond 
into  India,  when  some  day  the  Mohammedans  and  Hindus  unite 
against  their  English  opjjressor." 

One  cannot  help  admiring  the  Kaiser's  prophetic 
insight.  In  spite  of  a  thousand  obstacles,  a  million 
sceptics,  including  the  great  Bismarck  and  his  powerful 
followers,  he  planned  an  economic  and  so-called  pacific 
conquest  of  the  Moslem  world.  For  twenty  years  he 
has  sown  an  Oriental,  a  Near  Eastern  policy.  He  will 
reap  a  rich  harvest  some  day  unless  England  stops  him. 
It  was  Frederick  the  Great,  who,  more  than  one  hundred 
and  fifty  years  ago,  first  discovered  that  Turkey  might 
be  Germany's  strongest  ally  against  Russia.  Napoleon 
did  the  same.  The  present  Emperor  always  was  con- 
vinced that  a  Turkish  military  organisation,  trained 
and  led  by  German  officers,  would  prove  a  most  valuable 
asset.  I  was  told  of  a  stormy  interview  that  took  place 
a  few  years  ago  between  the  Kaiser  and  Herr  von 
Gwinner.  The  latter,  who  in  those  days  did  not  believe 
in  would-be  passive,  military-political  penetration,  ex- 
pressed serious  doubts  on  the  advantages  of  having  so 
many  German  officers  in  the  Turkish  army.  He  main- 
tained that  they  did  more  harm  than  good  to  the  Ger- 
man cause,  and  recommended  that  the  majority  of  them 
should  be  recalled.  The  Kaiser  flew  into  a  rage.  He 
would  never  permit  such  interference.  He  shouted: 
"  Leave  my  officers  alone ;  their  position  there  is  worth 
more  to  me  than  ten  army  corps ! "  Who  can  say 
to-day  that  he  was  wrong! 

All  the  same,  if  one  examines  more  closely  the  struc- 
ture which  he  has  built  up  in  Turkey,  he  will  find  that 


380  BEHIND  THE  GERMAN  VEIL 

its  foundations  are  weak,  naj^  —  rotten.  They  neither 
consist  in  real  friendship  nor  in  mutual  respect.  (Mu- 
tual contempt  would  better  describe  them.)  And  an 
alliance,  where  those  essential  qualities  are  lacking, 
cannot  be  sound,  and  therefore  cannot  survive  long. 

In  spite  of  German  intrigues,  the  Turks  were  slow 
to  forget  Great  Britain's  help,  rendered  in  critical  days 
of  bitter  need.  In  our  conversations  the  name  of  Lord 
Stradford  de  Redcliffe,  Ambassador  to  Turkey  during 
the  Crimean  War,  and  even  of  Lord  Salisbury,  as  Great 
Britain's  delegate  to  the  Conference  in  1878  (where 
owing  to  his  strong  representations  he  obtained  favour- 
able terms  for  Turkey),  were  frequently  mentioned,  and, 
especially  the  former,  always  with  admiration,  gratitude 
and  respect.  Be  it  said  to  the  credit  of  British  diplo- 
macy that  it  succeeded  for  a  long  time  in  keeping  the 
warming  fires  of  gratitude  burning  in  spite  of  the  con- 
tinual stream  of  cold  water  directed  on  them  by  the 
German  firemen. 

"  England's  mistake,"  so  I  was  told,  "  began  in  1882. 
Having  occupied  Egypt  and  thereby  made  sure  of  the 
sea  route  to  India,  she  thought  that  henceforth  she  had 
no  longer  any  vital  interest  in  Turkish  politics.  When 
she  woke  up  from  that  delusion  she  tried  to  solve  the 
Oriental  problem  by  attempting  to  secure  the  land  route 
to  India  as  well.  Then  she  met  Germany,  and  .  .  . 
went  to  sleep  again." 

Obtaining  the  Bagdad  Railroad  Concessions  in  1899 
was  one  of  Germany's  star  turns  on  her  Turkish  pro- 
gramme of  Varieties.  It  was  a  factor  of  the  foremost 
economic  and  political  importance,  and  necessarily 
brought    Germany    and    Turkey    closer    together.     It 


THE  GERMAN-TURKISH  ALLIANCE     381 

caused  a  great  deal  of  jealousy  and  distrust  on  the  part 
of  England  and  Russia.  Why  England  at  the  bicker- 
ings of  the  Bagdad  Railroad  Conference  in  1903  gave 
up  the  chance  of  keeping  a  British  finger  in  the  German 
Bagdad  pie,  is  a  riddle  which  nobody  with  whom  I  spoke 
on  these  subjects  seemed  able  to  explain.  The  minor 
concessions  obtained  in  Western  and  Southern  Anatolia, 
Smyrna,  Mersina,  etc.,  can  by  no  stretch  of  the  imagi- 
nation be  considered  an  adequate  equivalent  for  what 
she  lost. 

I  had  a  most  interesting  talk  one  afternoon  with 
Herr  von  Gwinner  in  the  offices  of  the  Deutsche  Bank. 
I  do  not  think  a  greater  authority  on  Asia  Minor  rail- 
road matters  exists.     Herr  von  Gwinner  said  to  me : 

"  What  does  the  world  think  of  the  fact  that  while 
we  are  in  the  midst  of  this  gigantic  war,  surrounded  and 
attacked  by  enemies,  the  Deutsche  Bank  is  able  to  carry 
on  its  various  railroad  projects  in  Asia  Minor?  That 
does  not  look  as  if  Germany  were  standing  on  the  brink 
of  an  economic  and  financial  abyss.  Work  is  in  prog- 
ress in  various  parts  of  the  country.  Building  on 
the  railroad  line,  Angora  to  Siwas  and  Kaiserie,  was 
begun  a  few  weeks  ago.  The  stretch  from  Djerabulus 
to  Rais  el  Ain  has  been  completed  since  the  war  began. 
In  the  Taurus  Mountains  our  engineers  are  overcoming 
almost  insurmountable  obstacles ;  139  artificial  struc- 
tures, i.e.,  bridges,  tunnels,  etc.,  have  to  be  built  there. 
Some  of  the  twcnt3^-eight  tunnels  have  a  length  of  nearly 
9,000  feet.  The  most  northerly  one  (near  Bclomik) 
was  completed  this  year.  In  the  south  a  railroad  line 
is  being  rapidly  pushed  forward  towards  the  Egyptian 
frontier  by  Meissner  Pasha  and  his  German  railroad 
battalion.     We  are  active  everywhere. 

"  Russia  stole  a  march  on  us  in  1902  when  she  ob- 


S82  BEHIND  THE  GERMAN  VEIL 

tained  the  railroad  concessions  of  Northern  Asia  Minor; 
but  now,  of  course,  all  those  privileges  will  become  ex- 
clusively German  prerogatives.  And  so  will  every  con- 
cession granted  in  the  past  to  England  and  France. 
Russia  will  before  long  be  driven  back  over  the  Cau- 
casus, thereby  returning  to  us  —  I  mean  Turkey  —  one 
of  the  most  fertile  territories  of  Asia  Minor." 

"  The  Bagdad  railroad  will  henceforth  be  in  fact, 
as  well  as  in  name,  the  beginning  of  the  land  road  to 
India.  And,  as  Antzcerp  has  been  called  the  loaded 
pistol  pointed  at  the  heart  of  England,  so  xvill  the 
double  track  of  the  Bagdad  railroad  line  some  day  be 
described  as  *  a  double-barelled  modern  automatic 
pointed  at  the  heart  of  India.^  " 

The  German  plans  for  Northern  Africa,  including 
Morocco,  Algiers,  Tunis  and  Tripoli,  are,  for  the  pres- 
ent, i.e.,  until  peace  negotiations  are  opened,  held 
in  abeyance.  Both  Turkey  and  Germany  realise  that 
from  that  quarter  they  have  nothing  to  expect. 

I  saw  the  translation  of  a  letter  addressed  to  the 
Sultan  of  Turkey  by  a  high  Algerian  dignitary.  It 
was  as  simple  as  it  was  concise.  It  said  that  the  call  to 
join  in  the  Holy  War  greatly  interested  the  Algerian 
peoples,  but  that  they  were  afraid  of  the  French,  who, 
as  certainly  as  Mohammed,  would  kill  them  all  if  they 
should  rise.  Therefore  they  were  very  sorry,  but  .  .  . 
etc.,  etc.  It  was  one  of  the  simplest  epistles  ever  writ- 
ten on  such  a  big  subject.     And  by  an  Oriental,  too! 

Many  letters  of  this  kind,  if  not  of  its  size,  were 
received  from  various  tribes  of  the  Moslem  world.  A 
well-known  high  priest  of  Morocco  bluntly  countered 
the  call  to  a  Holy  War  with  the  statement  that  in  North 
Africa  they  expected  no  help,  either  from  Turkey  or 


THE  GERMAN-TURKISH  ALLIANCE     383 

from  Germany,  in  reinstating  them  into  their  inde- 
pendence. 

But,  if  nothing  is  expected  from  Northwest  Africa 
during  the  war,  Germany  is  keeping  a  steady  eye  on 
IMorocco.  She  has  not  forgotten  Agadir,  and  at  the 
coming  peace  conference  she  will  insist  \sic]  upon 
"  being  given  the  same  territorial  and  international 
rights  as  France,  England  and  Spain."  Thus  she  will 
in  future  take  part  in  "  guarding  the  Straits  of  Gibral- 
tar!" 

With  Egypt,  of  course,  it  is  quite  a  different  matter, 
at  least  so  they  thought.  The  way  Egyptian  af- 
fairs have  shaped  themselves  is  another  of  Germany's 
great  disappointments  in  this  war.  For  many  years 
German  agents,  enjoying  diplomatic  immunity,  have 
been  fomenting  anti-English  intrigues  among  the 
Egyptians,  spending  money  lavishly.  Germany  calcu- 
lated with  certainty  on  an  Eg3^ptian  rising  as  soon  as 
Turkey  should  enter  the  war.  They  thought  that  the 
thirty  thousand  Egyptian  troops  would  at  once  mur- 
der their  English  officers,  and  overwhelm  the  army  of 
occupation   (five  thousand  strong). 

Here  is  a  copy  of  a  confidential  note  on  the  subject, 
dated  April,  19 H:  / 

"Amongst  the  ten  million  Mohammedans,  suflFering  under  the 
British  yoke,  sufficient  '  groundwork '  has  been  carried  out  to  cause 
an  explosion  as  soon  as  proper  contact  can  be  established.  Ten 
million  Moslems  are  awaiting  the  call.  England  will  have  no  men 
at  her  disposal  in  case  of  a  European  conflict  to  increase  the  army 
of  occupation  —  a  mere  five  thousand." 

I  should  like  here  to  draw  the  attention  of  the  British 
authorities  to  a  publication,  printed  in  Geneva,  en- 
titled, "La  Patrie  Egyptienne.  Organ  mensuel  de 
I'emancipation    egyptienne."     The   title,   however    am- 


S84f  BEHIND  THE  GERMAN  VEIL 

bitious  it  may  sound,  gives  by  no  means  an  adequate 
idea  of  the  contents.  Of  all  the  impassioned,  seditious, 
fanatically  homicidal  sheets  I  have  ever  heard  of  this 
one  beats  them  all.  A  list  of  subscribers  to  this  gentle 
organ  would  prove  interesting  and  enlightening.  I 
knew  of  such  a  list  in  the  possession  of  a  German  official 
whom  I  met  in  Berlin.  If  ever  my  recording  angel 
demands  payment  for  that  beastly  list  which  I  never 
got,  it  will  be  a  heavy  settlement.  I  never  tried  so  hard 
to  wheedle  any  one  as  I  did  when  trying  to  get  hold  of 
that  register.  But  all  my  preliminary  manoeuvres  and 
attacks  failed.  I  might  have  had  better  luck  in  subse- 
quent attempts  but  for  the  unfortunate  "  accident  " 
that  summarily  cut  short  my  German  explorations. 

"  It  is  quite  true,"  several  of  my  Turkish  informants 
admitted,  "  that  the  Sultan  has  not  the  influence  over 
the  Mohammedan  states  of  the  Islam  world  he  is  sup- 
posed to  have  as  its  spiritual  head.  The  Arabs,  for  in- 
stance, have  a  far  greater  leaning  towards  England  and 
France  than  towards  Turkey  and  Germany."  I  heard 
that  some  years  ago  Abdul  Hamid  tried  by  insidious 
intrigues  to  obtain  a  stronger  influence  over  his  cq-re- 
ligionists  in  India,  in  order  to  use  this  as  a  lever  in  his 
negotiations  with  the  British.  His  efforts  met  with 
complete  failure. 

As  far  as  any  uprising  in  the  Empire  itself  is  con- 
cerned there  seems  to  be  no  doubt  that  Turkey  will  be 
able  to  cope  with  Arabs,  Seidists,  or  Ismailists,  should 
this  occur.  But  it  is  believed  that  the  stronger  the 
outside  attacks  on  the  Turkish  Empire,  the  more  con- 
solidated will  the  country  itself  become. 

Germany  is  working  hard  to  increase  the  Sultan's 
power  and  influence.  Owing  to  her  stratagems  and 
propaganda,  there  has  gradually  arisen  among  a  num- 


THE  GERMAN-TURKISH  ALLIANCE     385 

ber  of  people  of  other  Mohammedan  states  a  feeling, 
if  not  a  conviction,  that  the  only  safeguard  of  their  in- 
dependence lies  in  an  alliance  with  the  Ottoman  Empire. 
(Another  "  Self-Defence  "  Alliance  of  the  order  of  the 
German-Turkish  Entente!)  The  Germans  found  many 
willing  ears  both  in  Persia  and  Afghanistan  in  which 
to  pour  sinister  words  of  warning.  "  And,"  so  I  was 
assured,  "  it  would  be  unwise  to  deny  that  in  many 
places  they  have  borne  the  desired  fruit." 

The  crux  of  Germany's  nefarious  schemes  in  the  East 
may  be  found  in  the  following  statement  by  Excellence 
Baron  Mumm  von  Schwarzenstein,  a  former  German 
Ambassador  to  China,  and,  at  present,  the  go-between 
of  the  Berlin  Foreign  Office  and  neutral  journalists. 

He  said :  "  Our  teachings  and  judicious  propaganda 
in  Persia  and  Afghanistan  have  already  borne  excellent 
results.  England's  frantic  efforts  to  enlist  Persia  on 
the  side  of  the  Allies  have  proved  absolute  failures,  and 
so  they  will  remain.  All  British  schemes  in  Persia  and 
Afghanistan  have  been  thwarted  by  Germany.  Gradu- 
ally those  countries  are  beginning  to  realise  the  dan- 
ger threatening  them  from  the  side  of  those  two  op- 
pressors of  nations  —  England  and  Russia.  At  the 
same  time,  Germany  will  show  the  INIohammedan  peo- 
ples that  England's  world  dominion  is  not  founded  upon 
real  strength,  but  largely  upon  imaginary  power." 

"  Somewhat  after  the  style  of  the  chalk-line  that  im- 
prisons the  cock,"  he  added  as  an  after-thought. 

Germany  has  set  out  to  undermine  and  eventually 
destroy  England's  rule  in  Egypt  and  India.  To  drive 
her  out  of  both  of  those  countries  is  her  one  great  ob- 
ject. That  she  will  stop  at  nothing  I  need  not  empha- 
sise at  this  date. 

Baron  von  Mumm  continued :     "  Once  England  has 


386         BEHIND  THE  GERMAN  VEIL 

been  driven  off  the  map  of  Asia  and  Africa,  another 
European  nation,  but  one  that  stands  spiritually  much 
higher,  will  bring  Western  Kultur  into  the  East. 

"  Supported  by  Turkey,  Germany  is  the  logical 
power  to  carry  out  this  world  mission.  It  must  be  the 
ultimate  goal  of  the  German-Austrian-Hungarian  Alli- 
ance to  bring  its  civilising  influence  across  the  Black 
and  Caspian  Seas ;  across  the  Turkish  Empire,  through 
Persia,  Afghanistan,  over  the  Hindu  Kush,  into  Cen- 
tral Asia  before  the  very  walls  of  China,  for  the  benefit 
and  salvation  of  the  Mohammedan  peoples." 

To  thwart  those  plans  will  be  England's  task.  I  say 
England  advisedly,  because  the  interests  of  the  Allies 
are,  as  far  as  the  Turkish  and  other  Mohammedan 
States  are  concerned,  far  from  identical. 

A  most  fertile,  most  urgent  field  of  action  awaits  us 
between  Constantinople  and  the  Khaibar  Pass. 


CHAPTER  LII 

ON    "  STRAFING  "    AND    THOSE    WHO    DOn't 

HATRED  is  the  feeling  prevalent  among  our 
lower  classes,  where  it  is  inculcated  and  en- 
couraged by  the  Press  of  this  country.  Among  people 
of  our  standing  —  that  is,  among  the  educated  —  in 
Germany,  the  strongest  feeling  towards  England  is  not 
one  of  hatred  but  of  disappointment." 

The  above  statement,  and  let  me  immediately  testify 
to  its  perfect  sincerity,  was  made  to  me  by  Colonel 
Count  von  Lerchenfeld  at  Munich,  who  is  at  present 
serving  in  the  Bavarian  Army,  but  in  peace  time  is 
Governor-General  Lord-Lieutenant  of  one  of  the  prov- 
inces near  Munich.  I  met  him  through  the  kind  offices 
of  Miss  Fay,  an  American,  member  of  the  Royal  Opera 
in  Munich. 

His  words,  which  at  the  time  caused  me  much  sur- 
prise, were  spoken  in  answer  to  my  remark  on  his  evi- 
dent lack  of  the  "  Gott-strafe-England  "  spirit,  of  which 
one  heard  and  saw  so  much  on  the  surface  of  German 
life.  Many  times  since  then,  when  talking  to  other 
prominent  Germans,  his  words  have  come  back  to  me. 
Even  those  who  were  lavish  in  their  display  of  criticism 
of  England's  attitude  I  often  suspected  mainly  of  lip 
service.  Mind  you,  I  am  speaking  here  of  the  upper 
classes  only. 

At  the  Bavarian  Foreign  Office  in  Munich  I  had  the 
pleasure  of  meeting  the  Secretary  of  State,  von  Loessl, 
and  the  Minister  for  Agriculture,  Herr  von  Meinel. 
Both  echoed  the  sentiments  of  Count  Lerchenfeld,  which 

I  quoted  at  the  head  of  this  chapter. 

387 


388  BEHIND  THE  GERMAN  VEIL 

Herr  von  Meinel,  in  the  course  of  our  talk,  said: 
"  This  is  terrible !  It's  a  disastrous  war  for  all  con- 
cerned. Whoever  is  the  conqueror,  we  shall  all  lose. 
I  strongly  disapprove  of  nursing  and  inflaming  this 
bitter  spirit  of  hatred.  After  all,  this  war  must  end 
some  day,  and  then  we  shall  all  have  to  live  together 
again." 

I  liked  Herr  von  Meinel.  He  spoke  with  a  deep  sin- 
cerity which  was  very  convincing. 

If  you  want  straight,  unadulterated  hatred  of  Eng- 
land at  first  hand  you  must  visit  the  restaurants  and 
cafes,  the  "  Rathskeller  "  of  the  Vaterland.  In  such 
places  you  can  hear  it  expressed  at  almost  every 
table.  Sometimes  there  are  recitations  or  singing, 
and  some  wild-eyed,  Kaiser-moustached-patriotic-actor- 
singer  leaps  on  to  the  platform  to  render,  with  appro- 
priate gesture,  Lissauer's  "  Hymn  of  Hate."  Then 
you  will  witness  a  demonstration  that  is  sure  to  make  a 
deep  impression  on  3^ou,  deeper  perhaps  than  it  does 
upon  the  demonstrators  themselves.  You  go  home  and 
at  once  start  an  article  beginning:  "  The  whole  atmos- 
phere is  saturated  with  the  *  Gott-strafe-England ' 
spirit." 

I  admit  I  have  often  been  puzzled  to  know  how  deep 
this  feeling  of  hatred  really  goes,  and  whether  it  is  not 
largely  an  artificial  product,  inspired  and  fostered  by 
the  authorities,  in  order  to  keep  things  going,  to  main- 
tain the  people  at  concert  pitch  and  the  war  popular. 
The  Germans  are  extremely  sensitive  to  what  they  call 
"  Massensuggestion "  ("Mass  suggestion").  It  is 
common  knowledge  that  the  bulk  of  the  people  are  like 
sheep  (a  peculiarly  German  characteristic),  namely, 
they  either  follow  their  leaders  blindly  or  are  simply 
driven. 


(?ia4  tintm  -?eri£t»t  fee  DaUy  Telegraph.)  Zi>.  S^j.  fietne 


3<>re  aSo^nung  ifl  su(  ecntittcrt  unb.^)€ll. 


L3n  etnem  (getnffen  ilmfrei^  fcurfep  fid)  We      S>lE  7?etpfJe9uii9  tft  oorjiiflH*?*',  metft  Wraien 
"'Sefangencn  nmi)  ^^eiiel-en  bciregen.  fie  r\i^t  oflrt  oufefTen. 


EX^^i:^^^^ 


hS'ie  ©efangeren  WCTten  jeitwetfe  mit  leltbten 
i^tfceiten  au6«balb  tea  AaufeS  bef<I)aftigt. 


e  '.'"t  geforftt. 


7ie  Ctlc^tvenounbefen  er(iaUen  ongetnc 
^    arstHcbe  '3ebonl)lung. 


(ji:it.M\.\    l'i{is().\i:i{s   IN     l',.\(;i. AM) 
Ilov}    (he    press   keeps   the  fires   of  "strafiiKj"   Etu/htnd   burning 


ON  "  STRAFING  "  989 

During  the  months  I  spent  in  Germany  I  have  met 
and  talked  to  many  Germans  with  whom  a  feehng  of 
disappointment  overshadowed  more  or  less  strongly  the 
spirit  of  hatred. 

This  seemed  to  me  specially  marked  in  my  conversa- 
tions with  Herr  von  Gwinner,  Dr.  Solf,  Dr.  Walther 
Rathenau,  Professor  Doctor  Francke,  and  several 
others.  Invariably,  when  they  warmed  up  to  the  con- 
versation that  feeling  of  disappointment  would  be  ex- 
pressed in  one  form  or  another.  One  condition  only 
is  essential,  viz.,  you  must  be  alone  with  them,  what  the 
Germans  call  "  Unter  vier  Augen "  ("  under  four 
eyes  ").  The  minute  you  run  up  against  two  Germans 
together,  every  pacific  sentiment,  every  generous  feel- 
ing towards  the  foe,  is  at  once  suppressed.  They  seem 
to  find  it  necessary  to  encourage  each  other,  and  either 
of  them  would  be  ashamed  to  show  anything  else  but 
a  **  Gott-strafe-England  "  spirit.  "  Deutschland  iiber 
Alles." 

An  officer  I  met  in  Hamburg,  a  naval  commander, 
said  to  me  one  evening:  "  It  is  all  such  a  pity,  be- 
cause we  were  beginning  to  understand  each  other  better 
and  better  as  time  went  on.  This  is  especially  true  of 
those  among  us  who  have  visited  England;  ever  since 
then  we  have  felt  drawn  towards  th^  English  and  have 
admired  them.  Our  interest  grew  year  by  year.  After 
all,  one  must  admire  the  power  which  enables  a  small 
country  to  rule  almost  a  quarter  of  the  world.  Every 
one  of  us  who  spent  any  time  there  at  all  came  back 
with  opinions  entirely  different  to  those  held  by  the 
majority  of  our  countrymen." 

I  recall  a  most  curious  dinner  conversation  at  the 
house  of  a  German  lady  in  Berlin.  She  knew  England 
■very  well.  "  Yes,"  she  remarked,  "  they  do  know  how 
to  live  over  there.     Take  a  London   season,  we  have 


390  BEHIND  THE  GERMAN  VEIL 

nothing  here  that  can  be  compared  with  it."  A  young 
German  officer,  who  completed  the  party,  added  his 
quota  to  the  eulogy :  "  Yes,  I  agree  with  you  there, 
the  English  know  how  to  manage  their  pleasures.  Have 
you  ever  spent  a  day  at  Ascot?  It's  the  most  wonder- 
ful, the  most  beautiful  social  event  in  all  the  world." 
Then  my  hostess  chimed  in  again:  "You  must  admit, 
too,  that  when  an  Englishman  is  a  gentleman  he  is  the 
greatest  gentleman  in  the  world." 

To  say  that  such  a  conversation  took  place  in  a 
German  house  during  the  year  1915  must  seem  absurd, 
ludicrous  and  impossible,  yet  every  word  of  it  was  ut- 
tered, and  a  great  deal  more  in  the  same  strain.  If  I 
had  been  an  Englishman  I  would  probably  have  asked: 
"  Are  you  trying  to  pull  my  leg?  "  Under  the  circum- 
stances, however,  I  did  not  feel  quite  comfortable  at  the 
turn  the  conversation  was  taking.  Not  that  I  sus- 
pected a  trap  (quite  a  common  procedure  in  Germany), 
for  I  knew  my  hostess  better  than  to  do  that ;  no,  my 
discomfort  arose  from  my  knowledge  of  the  German  spy 
system,  in  which  the  very  walls  have  ears.  Indeed,  if 
there  had  been  a  German  policeman  or  Secret  Service 
man  (or  woman)  about,  I  think  the  three  of  us  would 
have  been  locked  up  at  once. 

Count  von  Lerchenfeld,  whom  I  have  already  quoted, 
smilingly  remarked,  when  speaking  about  the  fighting 
qualities  of  the  British:  *' It  takes  one  blow  to  knock 
a  Frenchman  down,  but  '  Donnerwetter  '  it  takes  sev- 
eral hard  cracks  to  floor  a  Scotchman,  and  even  then 
he'll  show  fight."  (I  should  mention  that  I  met  Count 
von  Lerchenfeld  while  he  was  on  five  days'  leave  from 
the  front,  near  Ypres !) 

I  have  spoken  to  a  great  number  of  German  aviators, 
and  invariably  their  verdict  of  the  British  was :  "  They 
have  given  us  a  great  surprise.     They  are  fine ;  we  never 


ON  "STRAFING"  391 

thought  they  would  show  up  so  well,  and  they  are  im- 
proving day  by  da3^  But  their  machines  cannot  com- 
pete with  ours,  they  are  too  slow." 

I  would  like  to  state  in  conclusion,  and  state  most 
emphatically,  that  in  this  chapter  I  have  only  tried 
to  point  out  some  of  the  oases  that  exist  in  the  great 
desert  of  German  hatred  —  oases  Avhich  were  as  refresh- 
ing to  me  when  I  discovered  them  as  the  places  from 
which  I  borrowed  their  name.  I  have  given  some  of 
my  personal  experiences,  and  added  some  purely  per- 
sonal impressions.  I  do  not  wish  them  to  be  considered 
as  an  argument  one  way  or  another. 


CHAPTER  LIII 

THE    FATEFUI.    INTERVIEW    WITH    BARON    MACCHIO,    LATE 
AUSTRO-HUNGARIAN    AMBASSADOR    IN    ROME 

DURING  a  short  visit  to  Rome  in  1915,  just  before 
Italy  entered  the  war,  His  Excellency  the  Ameri- 
can Ambassador,  Mr.  Thomas  Nelson  Page,  was  kind 
enough  to  give  me  an  introduction  to  Baron  Macchio, 
the  then  Austrian  Ambassador  to  Italy.  After  many 
abortive  attempts,  I  finally  succeeded  in  persuading  him 
to  give  me  an  interview  for  publication.  I  had  to  prom- 
ise, first,  that  I  would  not  try  to  discuss  with  him  the 
Austro-Italian  negotiations  then  in  progress ;  second, 
that  before  publishing  the  inter\'iew  I  would  submit  it 
to  him  for  approval.  Of  course  there  were  no  objec- 
tions on  my  part  to  give  those  assurances. 

What  a  big  barn  of  a  place  the  Palazzo  Venezia  is ; 
with  all  its  iron  doors  it  reminded  me  almost  of  a  prison. 
How  different  to  the  attractive,  home-like  English  sur- 
roundings of  Sir  Rennell  Rodd's  official  residence  on 
the  Via  Venti  Settembre. 

I  had  many  talks  with  the  genial  First  Secretary  of 
the  Embassy,  Count  Ambrozy.  His  optimism  certainly 
was  unlimited.  During  one  of  our  meetings  he  said: 
"  I  can  best  prove  to  you  what  I  think  of  the  situation 
between  Italy  and  Austria  by  telling  you  that  I  have 
just  sent  for  my  wife  to  come  to  Rome.  Surely  you  do 
not  think  I  would  do  that  if  I  thought  there  was  going 
to  be  any  trouble?"  Let  me  repeat  that  Count  Am- 
brozy was  First  Secretary  and  Charge  d'Affaires  of  the 
Austrian  Embassy! 

But  to  come  to  the  interview  with  His  Excellency  the 
392 


INTERVIEW  WITH  BARON  MACCHIO     393 

Austrian  Ambassador,  Baron  Macchio.  We  talked 
for  about  an  hour. 

The  Ambassador  went  at  length  into  the  Serbian 
question,  which  has  been  written  about  and  expounded 
so  often  that  I  need  not  repeat  his  conversation,  save  to 
say  that  —  according  to  His  Excellency  —  there  exists 
a  great  misapprehension  abroad  as  to  the  feeling  be- 
tween Austro-Serbians  and  Serbians  proper. 

"The  majority  of  Serbians  of  Austria  and  Hun- 
gary," he  explained,  "  do  not  look  towards  Serbia  as 
their  leader.  They  are  more  civilised  and  economically 
far  more  advanced  than  the  Serbians. 

"  The  annexation  of  Bosnia  and  Herzegovina  was 
forced  upon  us  by  the  reinstatement  of  a  Turkish  Par- 
liament. It  would  have  brought  the  many  Mohamme- 
dans in  these  provinces  in  an  anomalous  position  in  case 
they  should  have  been  elected  to  tlie  Turkish  Parlia- 
ment. Austria  could  hardly  have  allowed  her  own  sub- 
jects—  which  they  practically  were  even  before  the 
formal  annexation  —  to  sit  in  a  Turkish  House  of  Rep- 
resentatives. The  annexation  was  for  us  a  vital  neces- 
sity to  maintain  our  position  towards  the  Balkan  States. 
Shortly  after  the  annexation  we  gave  both  provinces 
autonomy." 

I  asked  the  Ambassador  to  what  reason  he  ascribed 
the  serious  defeats  which  the  Austrian  army  had  suf- 
fered at  the  hands  of  the  Serbians.  "  Those  losses  have 
been  greatly  exaggerated,"  he  replied.  "  It  is  true, 
however,  that  mistakes  have  been  made  through  over- 
zealousness  on  the  part  of  some  of  our  military  leaders, 
who  advanced  too  quickly  into  Serbia  without  establish- 
ing proper  lines  of  communication  with  the  rear.  Tliis 
is  the  main  cause  of  our  reverses.  As  to  the  '  taking ' 
of  Belgrade  by  the  Serbians,  that  city  had  long  before 
been  evacuated  by  our  troops." 


S94  BEHIND  THE  GERMAN  VEIL 

Trying  to  lead  the  conversation  into  other  channels, 
more  recent  ones,  I  asked  the  Ambassador  what  would 
be  the  result  if  Hungary  should  attempt  to  make  peace 
alone. 

"  Such  a  conjecture  is  absolutely  unthinkable  and 
impossible.  Here,  again,  people  abroad  do  not  under- 
stand in  the  least  our  relationship  with  Hungary.  In 
the  first  place,  Hungary,  as  a  member  of  the  Dual  Em- 
pire, cannot  make  peace  alone,  any  more,  or  rather  less, 
than  Saxony  or  Bavaria  could,  without  downright  start- 
ing and  finishing  a  revolution  first.  In  the  second  place, 
the  interests  of  Hungary  in  this  war  are  more  than  ever 
interwoven  with  those  of  Austria ;  her  importance  as  a 
State,  her  position  as  a  first-class  Power  —  all  are  based 
upon  this  alliance.  One  of  the  many  great  mistakes  our 
enemies  make  is  to  build  upon  the  political  differences 
the  two  countries  have  had  in  the  past.  I  can  best 
refer  you  to  Count  Tisza's  attitude,  both  in  speech  and 
actions,  since  the  beginning  of  this  war.  The  end  of 
this  struggle  will  only  bring  a  stronger  and  closer  con- 
solidation of  the  Dual  Empire. 

"  Hungary  has  not  yet  forgotten,  or  forgiven,  Rus- 
sia's invasion  of  her  territory  in  1849,  when  a  Russian 
army  of  two  hundred  thousand  men  crushed  the  Hun- 
garian revolution.  Nobody  in  Hungary  doubts  that 
the  time  had  come  once  and  for  all  to  settle  the  Serbian 
question,  which  had  become  a  poison,  eating  into  the 
vitals  of  the  Empire.  The  war  is  popular  among  all 
classes  and  parties,  and  they  have  determined,  as  vari- 
ous Russian  invasions  into  the  Carpathian  mountains 
on  Hungarian  soil  have  shown  them  the  seriousness  of 
the  situation,  to  fight  to  the  bitter  end.  In  this  basic 
idea  towards  the  war  we  are  in  full  accord  with  Ger- 
many. 

"  Necessarily  we  see  the  war  purely  from  the  Russian 


INTERVIEW  WITH  BARON  MACCHIO      395 

and  Serbian  danger  side,  while  lack  of  contact  with 
England  and  English  interests  naturally  causes  an  ab- 
sence of  that  hatred  which  Germany  bears  towards  that 
country.  Our  heart  in  this  war  is,  above  everything, 
against  Russia,  as  we  realise  that  it  means  the  existence 
of  the  Dual  Empire  Monarchy.  And  as  Hungary's  in- 
terests are  best  promoted  by  her  firm  consolidation  with 
Austria,  so  the  interests  of  the  Dual  Empire  live  in  her 
friendship,  her  alliance  with  Germany.  But  even  if 
these  interests  were  not  so  obvious,  Austria-Hungary 
would  never  make  peace  separately,  because  our  Em- 
peror and  our  Government  will  stand  or  fall  by  their 
word  and  their  treaty." 

On  the  present  status  between  Austria  and  Italy  — 
and  especially  with  regard  to  his  official  mission  —  the 
Ambassador  refused  to  make  any  comments. 

So  far  Baron  Macchio. 

Alas !  little  did  I  realise  the  terrible  consequences  this 
interview  was  going  to  have. 


CHAPTER  LIV 

ANOTHEK   *'  DAILY  TELEGEAPH  "   INTEEVIEW  THAT   UPSET 

BERLIN 

TROUBLE ARREST ESCAPE 

OF  all  the  interviews  I  have  ever  negotiated  during 
my  career  as  a  journalist  there  is  none  for  which 
I  paid  as  dearly  as  the  one  recorded  in  the  previous 
chapter. 

What  irony  of  fate  that  the  interview  which  had  been 
one  of  the  most  difficult  to  obtain  should  be  the  one 
that  I  would  have  given  a  year  of  my  life  never  to  have 
written. 

This  is  what  happened. 

After  having  prepared  the  copy,  submitted  it  to 
Baron  Macchio  for  his  approval,  and  having  received  it 
back  practically  untouched,  I  was  enabled,  through  the 
courtesy  of  Sir  Rennell  Rodd,  the  British  Ambassador, 
to  send  it  to  London  in  the  Embassy  bag.  Of  course  it 
had  to  pass  through  the  British  Foreign  Office.  In  a 
special  and  separate  letter  I  gave  elaborate  instructions 
about  its  publication,  as  I  was  immediately  leaving  for 
Berlin.  What  exactly  happened  I  have  never  been  able 
to  find  out,  whether  the  letter  and  the  article  got  sepa- 
rated at  the  Foreign  Office,  or  whether  the  letter  got 
lost  entirely,  I  cannot  say,  but  a  few  weeks  later,  while 
I  was  back  in  Berlin  and  continuing  to  reap  a  rich 
journalistic  harvest,  the  Macchio  interview  appeared  in 
The  Daily  Telegraph,  and  under  the  usual  "  SPECIAL 
CORRESPONDENT  "  heading. 

Once  more  a  Daily  Telegraph  interview  threw  a  jour- 
396 


«  DAILY  TELEGRAPH  "  INTERVIEW      397 

nalistic  bomb  in  the  German  camp,  and  set  official  cir- 
cles in  Berlin  and  Vienna  in  commotion. 

^n  article  in  the  Berliner  Tagehlatt  started  the  ball 
rolling.  The  idea  that  a  representative  of  The  Daily 
Telegraph  should  have  an  interview  with  an  Austrian 
Ambassador  was,  of  course,  put  down  as  simply  pre- 
posterous, and  merely  regarded  as  a  further  proof  of 
British  lying  and  falsification  of  news.  "  Probably  the 
'  interview  '  was  a  second-hand  report  of  a  conversation 
the  Austrian  Ambassador  had  with  an  acquaintance, 
who  passed  it  on  to  an  English  correspondent."  "  Be 
that  as  it  may,"  the  article  continued,  "  Baron  Macchio 
should  have  remembered  his  official  position.  What- 
ever his  private  feelings  may  be  with  regard  to  '  Aus- 
tria's absence  of  hatred  towards  England  on  account  of 
lack  of  contact,^  he,  as  an  ambassador,  had  no  right  to 
express  them  in  places  where  they  might  find,  and,  as 
we  see  now,  did  find,  their  way  to  the  enemy.  Ger- 
many's enemies  are  Austria's  enemies ;  and,  by  the  same 
token,  Germany's  interests  are  Austria's  interests  in 
these  serious  times,  and  it  does  not  behove  any  Aus- 
trian, least  of  all  one  in  a  responsible  position,  to  point 
to  a  difference  in  sentiment."  In  this  strain  the  article 
ran  on  for  a  whole  column. 

The  fat  was  in  the  fire !  the  game  was  up !  When 
my  journalistic  star  was  at  its  zenith,  it  was  dashed  to 
earth.  My  usefulness  in  Germany  had  come  to  a  sud- 
den end. 

It  was  almost  heart-breaking. 

As  to  my  arrest,  the  various  interrogations,  my  ex- 
planation as  to  how  the  incriminating  article  appeared, 
my  release,  re-arrest,  release  again,  but  under  orders  not 
to  leave  Berlin ;  their  demand  for  my  parole  —  which, 
need  I  say,  I  refused  —  and  my  ultimate  escape  across 


398  BEHIND  THE  GERMAN  VEIL 

the  Baltic ;  the  harassing  days  of  my  trip  across  the 
North  Sea  in  the  tramp  steamer  Flora  in  fear  of  a  Ger- 
man submarine  whose  commander  would  press  me  to  re- 
turn ;  and  finally  my  safe  landing  at  Hull  —  well,  over 
those  incidents  and  sensations  I  must,  at  least  for  the 
present,  draw  a  veil.  In  the  first  place,  they  might  im- 
plicate kind  people  who  have  helped  me;  in  the  second 
place,  I  think  those  sensations,  heart-aches  and  worries, 
to  say  nothing  of  the  physical  adventures,  would  fill  a 
book  by  themselves. 

The  nervous  strain  had,  of  course,  been  a  severe  one, 
and  for  some  time  after  my  return  I  suffered  from  the 
reaction. 

But  all's  well  that  ends  well. 

These  last  months  I  have  necessarily,  for  several 
hours  a  day,  had  "  my  spiritual  home  in  Germany  " ; 
but,  glory  be,  I  had  only  to  look  out  of  my  window, 
over  the  gentle  rolling  hills  of  beautiful  Shropshire,  to 
be  reassured  at  once  that,  anyhow,  physically  I  was 
happily  in  the  heart  of  Old  England. 


PART   V 

FINALE 


ENVOY 

A  LAST  word  of  warning! 
England  has  done  wonders  in  this  war.  Apart 
from  the  fact  that  your  fleet  is  keeping  it  going,  the 
raising  of  five  million  men  is  a  feat  that  has  never  be- 
fore been  accomplished  in  the  history  of  the  world,  and 
could  not  be  equalled  in  any  European  country  to-day. 

But  though  you  have  done  wonders,  before  this  war 
is  settled,  before,  in  the  words  of  Mr.  Asquith,  Europe 
will  be  safe  from  the  menace  of  Prussia's  military  domi- 
nation, you  will  have  to  perform  super-wonders  —  mira- 
cles. 

You  will  have  to  make  still  greater  efforts,  still 
greater  sacrifices,  and,  compared  with  what  is  yet  to 
come,  the  battles  of  yesterday,  of  Ypres,  Hill  60,  Festu- 
bert,  Neuve  Chapelle  and  Loos,  will  seem  diminutive. 
The  real  fighting  will  begin  when  the  Germans  fight  on 
the  defensive,  their  back  against  the  wall,  and  that  fight- 
ing will  be  terrible. 

I  cannot  say  for  certain,  as  I  have  not  seen  them, 
but  I  am  told,  on  very  excellent  authority,  that  the 
Belgian  fortresses  along  the  Meuse  have  all  been  rebuilt 
and  re-armed,  and  are  stronger  than  ever  now.  The 
smaller  forts  are  said  to  be  protected  with  the  famous 
Gruson  plate,  while  entirely  new  ordnance  has  been 
placed  in  them.  To  take  those  forts  will  be  a  task  com- 
pared with  which  the  breaking  of  the  first  line  German 
trenches  will  be  child's  play. 

But  I  have  the  greatest  faith  and  admiration  for 
Thomas  Atkins.  It  will  be  done;  it  must  be  done. 
Only  after  the  Meuse  has  been  wrested  from  the  Ger- 
mans —  then,  and  then  only,  will  you  be  able  to  con- 

401 


402  BEHIND  THE  GERMAN  VEIL 

template   speaking  of   "  the   beginning   of   the   end " ! 

Whether  you  will  ever  get  beyond  the  Rhine  I  seri- 
ously doubt ;  in  fact,  if  I  must  be  honest,  I  think  it  will 
prove  an  impossibility,  unless  Holland  comes  in,  which 
is  not  very  likely. 

You  may  as  well  recognise,  first  and  last,  that  this  is 
primarily  an  Anglo-German  war.  Remember  that  as 
time  goes  on  your  Allies  will  grow  weaker  in  the  same 
ratio  as  Germany  does,  neither  more  nor  less. 

But  for  England  Germany  would  have  been  victori- 
ous on  all  fronts;  but  for  England  the  Germans  would 
be  the  masters  of  Europe  to-day,  and  .  .  .  they  know 
it.  Russia  will  find  that  she  will  have  her  hands  full  in 
holding  her  Eastern  front  intact.  While  the  Germans 
may  not  continue  the  advance  started  last  year,  I 
doubt  whether  the  Russians  have  as  yet  the  organisa- 
tion to  deliver  a  decisive  defeat.  I  use  "  organisation  " 
advisedly.  They  have  the  men  and  they  have  the  am- 
munition. It  is  Organisation  they  are  up  against,  and 
theirs  is  inferior  to  Germany's.  Austria  will  always 
be  child's  play  for  Russia.  She  has  hammered  that 
country  many  times  before,  and  will  do  so  many  times 
again.  But  defeating  the  Austrians  will  not  affect  the 
German  lines  in  Russia  very  considerably.  On  the 
other  hand,  if  the  Austrians  retreat  too  far,  the  Rus- 
sian lines  of  communication  through  Galicia  will  be 
seriously  endangered  by  German  flank  attacks.  Rus- 
sia's IDEA  IS  THAT  SHE  WILL  DEAL  WITH  AUSTEIA  AND 
TUEKEY,  BUT  THAT  THE  WESTERN  AlLIES  WILL  HAVE 
TO    TAKE    THE    LIOn's    SHARE    IN    DEFEATING    GERMANY. 

That  IS  WHAT  Russia  expects  from  the  Allies. 

The  Russian  march  to  Berlin  is  a  dream  that  will  — 
at  least  in  this  war  —  never  be  realised.  No,  it  is  Eng- 
land, and  England  again  and  again,  that  will  have  to 
settle  Germany.     The  Russians  alone  cannot  drive  the 


ENVOY  403 

Germans  out  of  their  country.  The  English  will  have 
to  do  it  for  them  —  at  the  Western  front. 

You  will  have  to  smash !  smash  !  smash ! 

You  do  not  know  Germany.  Your  deputations  of 
parliamentarians,  of  editors  and  other  journalists,  what 
did  they  amount  to?  How  many  Englishmen  amongst 
the  number  who  have  travelled  in  Germany  speak  the 
language?  And  how  do  they  expect  to  get  to  under- 
stand a  nation,  its  ambitions,  its  intrigues,  its  charac- 
ter, unless  they  do?  Lord  Haldane  does,  and  so  do  a 
few  others,  and  they  must  have  seen  the  trend  German 
ambition  and  German  feeling  were  taking  these  latter 
years :     "  England,  der  Feind  "  ("  England,  the  foe  "). 

Let  me  impress  upon  you  that  Germany  is  preparing 
for  peace  as  thoroughly  as  she  prepared  for  war.  Of 
course,  her  chances  of  influencing  the  British  public 
through  the  Press  are  at  present  nil,  but  look  out  the 
moment  peace  parleys  begin  in  earnest !  Then  this 
country  will  be  flooded  with  German-made  literature, 
arguments,  pleadings,  all  cleverly  disguised,  and  I  fear 
that  there  will  be  plenty  of  "  reasonable  people  "  here, 
otherwise  called  peace-cranks,  pacifists,  but  whose  real 
names  should  be  "  traitors,"  who  will  mother  and  father 
German-made  arguments.  You  have  only  to  remem- 
ber some  of  the  articles  that  appeared  in  several  of  your 
publications  up  to  the  very  day  England  declared  war. 

There  are  still  many  Kiihlmans  in  Germany.  They 
are  a  German  specialty, 


SOUTHERN  REGIONAL  LIBRARY  FACIU"^ 


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